County: Sligo Site name: CARROWGOBBADAGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0105
Author: Hilary Opie
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 568058m, N 831906m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.235023, -8.489949
Archaeological excavations took place between 22 May and 16 June 1995. The site appears as an irregularly shaped enclosure defined by an earthen bank, on top of which a stone bank has been constructed. It has an external diameter of 34m and an internal diameter of 26m. There were no surface indications of an outer ditch prior to excavation. The proposed Ballysadare-Collooney Bypass clips the eastern edge of the ringfort and it was this area that was investigated.
Excavations of the eastern edge of the site produced evidence of a univallate ringfort with an earthen bank and an outer ditch cut into the subsoil and bedrock. The ditch was up to 2m deep, approximately 3.5m wide, steep-sided and roughly V-shaped. This gave a total height/depth from bank top to ditch base of approximately 3.5m. Finds of animal bone were recovered from the ditch.
An entranceway was uncovered to the south-east. Here the two ditch termini became shallower and narrower before terminating altogether. A gap of approx. 3.2m was then left between the two, providing the entranceway into the ringfort. This consisted of a platform of bedrock and subsoil, sloping upwards from the exterior to the interior. The bank also decreased in height and width at this point.
16 Ormond Sq., Dublin 7 (on behalf of John Channing)
