1995:248 - RATHDOONEY BEG, Sligo

This research excavation, funded by the OPW on the recommendation of the National Committee for Archaeology, continued for a second season over four weeks, 28 August–22 September 1995.

Site 1: large barrow
This measured 24.5m x 23.5m and a maximum of 6.1m high. A cutting 12m x 3m was excavated across the enclosing ditch (6.7m wide and 2.1m deep), which contained 21 layers of fill, clays, soils and silts. Two contexts were waterlogged and contained animal bone, hazel and willow rods, insect remains and a thick layer of molluscs. Another was the truncated base of an external bank, 2.4m wide. In the upper part of Context 114 a large limestone boulder, probably a kerbstone, had tumbled from a higher point in the edge of the mound.

Site 2: bowl- barrow
The north-eastern quadrant was excavated to the old ground surface. The sod layer overlay a clay and sand layer which extended down the mound face, overlying more clay and sand, extending down c. 70% of the side of the mound. Beneath was a stone capping intended to stabilise the spoil in the mound: this extended down to cover the kerb. The main construction layer of the mound, obtained from the enclosing ditch, contained clay, silt and sand, with occasional cut sods. It contained an iron fragment and animal and human bone as well as charcoal. It was revetted by the kerb, a setting of angular stones, set in a single course close to the edge of the ditch.

Clay and silt with charcoal occurred in the lowest 0.7m of the main construction layer as a sloping layer of sods representing the A1 horizon, which had been placed into its base. Three layers of redeposited sod formed a primary sod-stack in the mound centre. Each layer could be differentiated by a layer of black organic material and charcoal on top. Iron oxide staining adhered to the bottoms of many of the sods. These sods represent the A1 horizon of the old ground cut from the top of the ditch and stacked, sod-side up, on the old ground, forming a low sod mound. Iron oxide at the base of each sod indicates the development of an iron pan at the base of the old A1 horizon.

The upper surface of the old A2 soil horizon had a layer of black organic material and charcoal, with a lens of burnt soil underneath with fragments of burnt limestone and chert. At the base of the horizon was an orange iron oxide. This layer extended the whole way to the edge of the ditch at north but had been removed, and presumably stacked in the centre of the monument, at east and south. This layer contained a fragment of iron-smelting slag. In places the A2 horizon, a clay/silt, dipped down into the B horizon. This layer also contained a fragment of iron-smelting slag.

Site 3: the saucer-barrow
The western part of the site was investigated. In Grid 1 the bank and ditch were cut by a field ditch. This was filled with a sod layer, overlying coarse sand and pebbles with leached columns of iron oxides forming an impervious iron pan throughout. The fill of the ditch was consistent with the 1994 sections, containing three major layers of fill. At the west a burial deposit extended from the section G1–2 1m along the base of the ditch. This was a deposit of charcoal containing cremated human bone, eleven iron artefacts (nails and a stud with adhering wood and a riveted handle) and an unburned cattle tooth. It was sealed by a clay which contained charcoal, unburned animal bone, flint, chert and two iron nails. This represents silting into the base of the ditch, indicating that the burial deposit was not covered at the time of its deposition. An oval stake-hole filled with a fine-grained sediment cut into the clay in Grid 2. This may represent a small upright timber placed into the base of the ditch after it had begun to silt.

18 Fox Hill, Wheaton Hall, Drogheda, Co. Louth