1994:109 - ENNISKILLEN, Fermanagh

This site is a few metres from the Enniskillen municipal boundary on the shore of Killynure Lough about 36m from the Enniskillen to Tempo road. It was discovered on January 3, 1994 during a planned search for burnt mounds in Fermanagh by Environment Service: Historic Monuments and Buildings. Another burnt mound was discovered about 46m to the south-east (this was not excavated). In April 1994 it was noticed that the site was being landfilled for a housing development, and an emergency partial excavation was undertaken.

The intact burnt mound appeared as a slight rise on the land. It was crescentic in plan, about 8m by 7m and about 0.2m high. The concavity of the plan opened out towards the lake. The excavation began by targeting the concavity. Excavation revealed a deposit of burnt mound material under a cover of soil about 0.2m thick. The burnt mound material consisted of burnt shattered sandstone pieces in a black matrix rich in charcoal. Below the soil cover, on top of the burnt mound deposit, two amber beads were recovered. These were dull red, semi-transparent, and rather dulled by scratching. Each was about 0.15m across. One was cubical with rounded edges with a hole bored from one corner diagonally to another. The other bead was a triangular prism with rounded corners, and with a hole bored between the centres of the triangular faces. The surface of the burnt mound material also bore materials such as pieces of brick, roofing slate, glass, clay smoking pipes and 14 new pence. Within the burnt mound material was a fired clay ball, dirty whitish in colour, perfectly circular, 0.21m in diameter - possibly a lemonade bottle stopper. A few pieces of burnt bone (unidentifiable) and a portion of a porcine humerus, unburnt, was also found.

At the base of the burnt mound deposit (but within it) a grid of wooden beams was uncovered. This beam grid lay on a layer of brushwood which in turn lay on the surface of a deposit of peat which underlay the whole of the burnt mound. The beams had a squared-off section with rounded corners. The wood was unidentifiable as to the species (possibly because it was altered at the cellular level by heat). The grid consisted of four horizontally placed beams set down in parallel with equal gaps between. These beams were from 0.07m to 0.12m thick and all were 1.86m long. Directly on top of these, eight beams were placed at 90º to the lower four, parallel to each other and with equal gaps between them. The end members of the upper set were placed to rest neatly on the extremities of the lower set. The ends of the upper beams all overlapped the lower set and the upper beams varied in length from 0.90m to 1.55m. The upper beams increased in length from the outer members towards the centre members to give a roughly oval outline in plan to the upper structure. There were no bindings or ties between the beams and no upright components. Burnt mound material directly and entirely coursed the beam grid and extended downwards into the small interstices between both upper and lower sets.

On the lakeward side of the beams, several older tree boles emerged from the peat and some of these protruded upwards through the burnt mound deposit very nearly to the surface of the latter. Distinct layering of the burnt mound deposit, seen as lighter and darker banding, could be seen in section to pass around the boles without deviation with parallel curved surfaces which were parallel to the shallow domed surface of the deposit.

Many large unburnt sandstone blocks, for example about 0.3m across, also occurred in this part, suspended within the thickness of the burnt mound deposit. No pattern could be discerned in the disposition of the boles and the blocks.

Trenches in other parts of the burnt mound showed only featureless burnt mound material right down to the basal peat.

The wood from the beam grid and the charcoal from the base of the burnt mound each gave carbon dates (from Groningen), which, calibrated, worked out as 4,000 years before present.

The basal peat under the bole-block region yielded hundreds of hazelnuts and four pine cones. This region was completely overlaid and surrounded by the 4,000 year old material. Three of the pine cones later released 47 seeds. Three of these germinated and one seedling survived for several months, under the care of the Department of Agriculture Forest Service. A carbon date for the pine cones is awaited.

66 Irvinestown Rd., Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh