County: Clare Site name: CLONMONEY NORTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 51:156 Licence number: 01E0810
Author: Brian Shanahan, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Furnace, Burnt spread and Cultivation ridges
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 543745m, N 662365m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.709485, -8.832492
Resolution of three potential archaeological features observed during an earlier archaeological assessment and metal-detector survey (Excavations 2001, No. 52) was required in advance of an extension to the Roadstone Quarry at Clonmoney North, Bunratty. The site lies within the zone of archaeological potential applied to the traditional location of the Battle of Bunratty.
Site 1 consisted of a bowl-shaped pit (0.9m x 0.8m, 0.3m deep) cut into subsoil that was baked red through burning. It was filled with charcoal-rich silty clay and a single lump of metal slag was retrieved from the base, suggesting that it had functioned as a small bowl furnace. There was no evidence for extensive deposits or wider occupation activity, but the site was extensively disturbed by a later series of lazy-beds. All were oriented east–west and line up with a field boundary further to the north. Two share an irregular profile, while the third has a box-like profile. They were 0.9m wide and 0.2m deep.
Site 2 was an irregular area of light brown silty clay (0.35m x 0.25m) containing a mix of baked clay, charcoal and decayed stone. There was no evidence for a cut or for extensive baking of the subsoil, suggesting that the site represents a single, brief, fire.
Site 3 was the remains of a more substantial fire spot (1.4m x 1m) consisting of a deposit of burnt clay, charcoal and ash, lying on baked reddened subsoil.
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