County: Clare Site name: BALLYCONNEELY (AR48/50)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0284
Author: Thaddeus C. Breen and Graham Hull, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 537805m, N 670294m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.780082, -8.921872
During monitoring of surface-stripping on the line of the N18/19 Road Improvement Scheme, a number of linear features and pits were discovered on the western side of a valley containing a bog, immediately south of the early medieval enclosure AR47/51. It was subsequently fully excavated.
The lowest level comprised a pit and a group of post-holes that had been covered by a layer (41) of soil containing worked antler and bones. Most of the features on the site post-dated Layer 41. They consisted of a complex of pits and gullies of unknown purpose. A pit and gully were sealed by a burnt spread containing some fragmentary copper-alloy objects and a buckle, an iron hook, a decorated bone piece, a knife blade and a hone. The various pits and gullies contained pieces of iron and copper alloy, fragments of shale bracelets, a bone pin and the skeleton of a dog. A human burial (a child aged three to five years) partly overlay one of the pits.
The pits and gullies above Layer 41 were confined to the northern half of the site. The southern half was crossed by a series of 22 shallow furrows, 1.5m apart, 0.35–0.65m wide. These are probably the remains of ‘lazy-bed’ cultivation. The fill included pieces of shale bracelet, a glass bead and an iron knife blade.
A V-shaped ditch, 2–2.4m wide and 2.6m deep, formed an arc on the north side of the site and looked as though it had enclosed it—it resembled the circular enclosure in AR47/51. The eastern end of this had been removed by machine before the excavation, but an examination of the places where the continuation of the ditch would have been expected revealed nothing.
The pits and gullies seem to be contemporary with the furrows, as one respects the other. They may represent habitation. The finds suggest an early medieval date but could also have derived from AR47/51 and been scattered in the topsoil. The site was part of the deer park of Dromoland Castle in the 18th century, so if the features are late they may represent encroachment on marginal areas during the population peak of the first half of the 19th century.
Editor's note: This report was formerly labelled 'Lazy-bed furrows, pits, gullies and spread of early medieval artefacts'.
13 Wainsfort Crescent, Templeogue, Dublin 6W and 14 Mill House, Mill Road, Ennis, Co. Clare
