County: Clare Site name: ROUGHAN HILL (Clare 153), Parknabinnia
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0230
Author: Carleton Jones and Alix Gilmer, Burren Archaeology Research
Site type: Megalithic tomb - court tomb
Period/Dating: Neolithic (4000BC-2501 BC)
ITM: E 525369m, N 693329m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.985499, -9.111454
As part of a continuing programme of survey and excavation on Roughan Hill on the south-east edge of the Burren, excavation was begun on court tomb Cl. 153 and the survey of ancient field walls and farmsteads was expanded.
Survey and excavation on Roughan Hill in 1994 and 1995 identified a final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age landscape consisting of field systems, wedge tombs and at least one Beaker-period farmstead (Excavations 1995, 5, 95E061). In 1998 two additional farmsteads were discovered that appear to be contemporary with that excavated, which brings the total to four farmsteads. All four are embedded in the same field system of 'mound walls' and all appear to be contemporary.
Most of the prehistoric activity on Roughan Hill appears to date to the Beaker period, but there are also indications of activity in the Neolithic. The excavation of the court tomb was initiated in order to answer questions about the Neolithic activity on the hill and the transition to the intensive occupation during the Beaker period (see Jones and Walsh, JRSAI 126 (1996), 86–107, for site location and plan).
Two trenches were opened in 1998. Trench A was opened to investigate the form of the forecourt and the nature and depth of the deposit. This trench extended east away from the tomb entrance and encompassed the southern half of the forecourt. Excavation revealed a number of interesting features. The forecourt was found to be very narrow, no wider than the gallery, which is unusual but not unique (similar forecourts occur on the two nearest court tombs, Ballyganner North and Leamaneh North, and also farther south, in County Tipperary at Shanballyedmund). The stones that formed the forecourt had no sockets but were placed directly on the old ground surface and propped up with smaller stones. The forecourt was loosely filled with cobble-sized stones. Interestingly, the forecourt is built within a drop in the bedrock. It is not yet clear whether the tomb builders were making use of a natural depression or the drop was formed by stone quarrying before tomb construction.
Trench B was opened to explore the nature of the 'revetment' stones on the south side of the cairn. This trench extended south from Trench A and crossed the line of revetment stones. Before excavation began it was thought that these stones may be a later alteration of the tomb. Trench B revealed the revetment stones to be sitting directly on the old ground surface. Additionally the cairn between the edge of the forecourt and the inner row of revetment stones showed a distinctive patterning. This consisted of layers of stones laid with their long axes parallel to each other and perpendicular to the stones in the next layer. It now appears that the forecourt, cairn, and revetment stones were all built at the same time.
Finds consisted of human and animal bone, a leaf-shaped arrowhead, a few pieces of debitage, a small, flat grinding stone and potsherds. The potsherds are awaiting analysis, but preliminary inspection shows that they are quite thin-walled.
No. 5 River Lane House, Parnell Street, Ennis, Co. Clare
