1997:455 - MOIGH LOWER, Roscommon

An unlisted site with the appearance of a burnt stone mound was excavated as part of an ongoing programme of research centred on the archaeological complex of Kiltullagh Hill. The mound is situated at the south-western end of a valley occupied by a turlough, on the south-eastern margin of which is a subrectangular platform mound called Lisheenabanragh. Adjacent to the burnt stone mound is an area of well-drained and slightly elevated ground known locally as Cnuc na Cartron. Excavation was preceded by a geophysical survey of the site which suggested greater complexity than was evident in the superficial morphology. In particular, this survey indicated the likelihood of two kidney-shaped structures, one of which is masked on the surface in consequence, perhaps, of a variety of weathering and erosional influences. Poor weather conditions and a high water-table slowed progress to such an extent that the excavation concentrated only on the more westerly of the two recurving areas revealed by geophysics.

Two troughs were revealed in this section of the mound. Trough 1 was infilled with burnt stone with a high content of fine sooty charcoal. In Trough 2 a thin sandy lens overlay a darker organic layer. It may be that the presence of mound material in Trough 1 indicates earlier construction and abandonment in favour of the second trough. Both troughs were lined with timber, which was identified, by eye, as Quercus sp. Neither lining was complete and the timbers were in a poor state of preservation. On the northern and eastern margins of Trough 1 a number of wooden ‘pegs’ or ‘stakes’ had been driven vertically into the underlying marl. The pegs had been broken rather than cut. The infill from Trough 2 contained one small fragment of animal bone, several small pieces of timber, and a number of fragments of burnt clay. The clay may have been used as a daub to seal the joints of the trough timbers, or it may simply be a pressurised natural extrusion of environmental clay into the trough. To the east of Trough 1 was a row of large stones in a linear arrangement. These may have been used as stepping-stones or they may constitute the remains of some kind of kerbing.

Survey and sectional details of the mound indicate that it contains as much as 70 cubic metres of stone, weighing, perhaps, 140 tonnes. The reduction to small cobbles of this volume of stone suggests a long currency of use and implies the destruction of very large quantities of timber. Deliberate coppicing of hazel woodland on the adjacent Kiltullagh upland should not be discounted. The scale of the mound and the volume of resources consumed in its accretion imply that it was a permanent site. The possibility of another phase of activity associated with the second area of recurve identified by geophysics recommends further excavation at the site.