1996:033 - LATOON SOUTH, Clare

The townland of Latoon South is located c. 8km south of Ennis. Initial examination of the site suggested the presence of a 15m x 20m subrectangular enclosure, associated with a series of four linear earthworks and a small low mound, with a single limestone monolith further to the west.

During the 1980s the site had been interpreted as a possible Norman village (Ryan 1981). The reported discovery (in the vicinity south of the site) of a sherd of prehistoric Mediterranean pottery (Gibbons 1989) sparked some interest in the prehistoric potential of the site (Grogan and Condit 1994; O’Sullivan and Condit 1995).

A trial excavation of the site was undertaken in advance of the N18/N19 road improvement scheme from Ballycasey to Dromoland. This was funded in full by Limerick County Council.

A series of eighteen trial-cuttings were made over an eight-week period. The results indicated that two of the linear earthworks (Banks 1 and 4) were eighteenth-century field boundaries. The initial fieldwork suggested the presence of two other possible linear earthworks (Banks 2 and 3), but examination of these features produced no evidence to substantiate the survey findings. The 1m-high stone monolith to the west of the earthworks was erected in the eighteenth/nineteenth century and probably served as an animal scratch. At some time in the late eighteenth century the large enclosure was added to the east of one the eighteenth-century field boundaries (Bank 1). The excavation results suggested that the enclosure was probably used as an animal pen. The low earthen mound to the east of the enclosure produced eighteenth/nineteenth-century pottery but was otherwise sterile.

Editor’s note: This excavation, though carried out in 1995, arrived too late for inclusion in that year’s bulletin.

References
Gibbons, E. 1989 An earthwork complex at Latoon South. The Other Clare 13, 49–50.
Grogan, E. and Condit, T. 1994 The later prehistoric landscape of south-east Clare. The Other Clare 18, 8–12.
O’Sullivan, A. and Condit, T. 1995 Late Bronze Age settlement and economy by the marshlands of the Upper Fergus Estuary. The Other Clare 19, 5–9.
Ryan, G. 1981 Fresh evidence of Norman occupation in the Bunratty area. The Other Clare, 12–13.