1997:059 - BALLYMACAWARD, Donegal

In March/April 1997, during land reclamation, human bone, slabs and boulders were encountered in an area behind sand dunes near the estuary of the River Erne. As a result of this discovery a limited excavation was undertaken for four weeks in May/June 1997 at the request of the National Monuments Service.

Initially three trial-trenches were dug by hand: Nos 1 and 2, measuring 1.5m wide x 0.5m long (north-south), were opened at the northern and southern parts of the site respectively, and No. 3, 2m wide x 22m long, was opened west-east across the centre of the site. These revealed that the site consisted of a low, platform-type cairn, approximately 25m in diameter x 1m high. The cairn material consisted of water-rolled boulders and at least one extremely large rock, laid directly onto the sand. There is some evidence that the cairn was surrounded by a low kerb and that the surface at the centre had been covered with puddled clay/sand.

Incorporated into the body of the cairn were two small rectangular stone cists. One of these (F12, 0.55m x 0.3m x 0.3m deep) was undisturbed and covered by a flat slab. It contained only clean sand. The second (F16, 0.7m x 0.5m x 0.2m deep), which had been disturbed by earth-moving machinery prior to the excavation, also appeared to have contained only sand.

Two small bowl-shaped pits containing cremations were located in the puddled surface material near the centre of the monument. F7 (0.45m in diameter x 0.1m deep) contained a mixture of cremated bone, charcoal and dark-stained sand but no artefacts. F19 had been almost destroyed by the machine, but survived as a dark stain measuring 0.5m x 0.39m x 20mm deep; only a minute amount of charcoal and cremated bone survived. Charcoal from F7 produced a C14 date (UB-4169) in the 2nd/1st century BC.

All evidence for inhumation burial which was visible on the surface was investigated. A total of ten graves were located and excavated. All contained the remains of extended supine inhumations, orientated west-east (heads west), with no grave-goods. The indications are that the burials are of five probable females, one probable male, and three uncertain. (Remains were examined in situ and post-excavation by Dr Máire Delaney.) Three of the burials were in long cists which had slab lining, floors and covers.

Bone from one of these burials (female) produced a high-precision C14 date (UB-4171) of the mid-5th century AD. The remaining burials were in graves dug into the sand and/or puddled surface. Some had slight protection in the form of stones laid around the head. Two of these burials (both female) have produced high-precision C14 dates from bone (UB-4170, UB-4172) in the early and middle 7th century AD. Conclusions at present suggest that the cairn may originally have been built in the Bronze Age (if the short cists can be regarded as belonging to that period); it was reused for burial in the Iron Age, and again in the Early Historic/early medieval period. The location of the cairn, on the northern bank of the estuary of the River Erne, which was an important territorial boundary in the Early Historic period, suggests that it represents a boundary ferta or ancestral burial-place.

A further season of excavation is proposed for 1998.

121 Barton Road East, Dundrum, Dublin 14