1994:107 - THE GREY STONE, Doon, Fermanagh

The excavation took place over a five-day period between September 19–23, 1994. It was carried out on behalf of the DOE Environment Service on foot of a planning application.

The site is located on the eastern edge of a drumlin with fine unrestricted views all round, it lies in improved grassland, approximately 80m west of the B80, the main Fintona to Enniskillen Road, just south of the main street of Tempo. Although the current Irish Grid map, Sheet 212, records a standing stone, designated 'Grey Stone', incorporated in a field boundary, no surface remains were visible immediately prior to excavation. In a previous survey the site was recorded as consisting of a group of four orthostats aligned approximately north-south. The northernmost stood 0.71m high and was 0.23m wide and 0.08m thick. At a distance of 4.5m to the south stood the second stone. It was 1.47m tall, 0.86m wide and 0.15m thick. The third stone was 0.76m to the south of No. 2 and stood 0.91m high, 0.45m wide and 0.10m thick. Close by the northern orthostat was a smaller stone which measured 0.51m tall, 0.30m wide and 0.10m thick. The surveyor proposed that the stones were probably part of a megalithic burial chamber (PSAMNI 1940, 166). When visited in 1972 all traces of the site had disappeared. However, it was decided to carry out a small scale-excavation because there remained the possibility of retrieving archaeological dating evidence associated with the site from surviving sockets as well as checking whether the 'Grey Stone' had been the remnants of the megalithic structure mentioned in the Preliminary Survey.

The deposit of stony soil uncovered at the western end of the area clearly represented the slight remnants of the much ploughed out field bank which was noted during the site visit in 1972 as being composed of earth and stone. The bank deposit overlay the cut for a pit and by association the stones also. The form of the shallow soil-filled pit, with large stones packed into the northern and eastern side, suggests it to be the remains of a socket, presumably associated with one of the standing stones noted in 1940. No dating evidence was recovered. However, due to the area available for investigation, limited to the eastern side of the field boundary, it was not possible to excavate the socket completely. But there was nothing noted in the excavation of the eastern half of the feature to suggest that dating might survive beneath the baulk. No evidence was noted in the area around the socket to suggest the presence of a megalithic site. There was no substantial increase in the quantity of stones in the surrounding soil to suggest the one-time presence of a cairn, nor was there any indication for the other stones mentioned in the 1940 survey. However it must be said that evidence for these may still survive on the, as yet unthreatened, western side of the field boundary.

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