County: Mayo Site name: KNAPPAGH MORE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 88:53, 54 Licence number: 01E0155
Author: Leo Morahan
Site type: Metalworking site
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 497575m, N 780127m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.760677, -9.553373
A proposed residence with full services was outlined for a field of uneven ground immediately north and north-west of a ringfort. An ‘Old Iron Mill’ had been marked on the 1838 OS map in an area to the north-west of the fort. Before testing, a stone-built kiln in the same field was recorded. Iron slag and vitrified burnt stone could be seen on the ground around the kiln and on the sides of the steep sloping ground between the kiln and Trenches 1 and 2.
Trench 1 was 12m long north-north-east/south-south-west and the ground was moss-covered throughout. Beneath this was a black humus-rich clay 0.2–0.3m thick. This clay left a burnt stain on the hands and was intermingled with fragments of iron slag and a vitreous stone-like material. Beneath this a rather uniform yellow daub gravel mix sat on a natural shale floor at intervals.
Trench 2 was 12m long north–south and again the ground surface was moss-covered. Topsoil was a rich black clay with considerable quantities of fire-stained stones (mostly sandstone), through it. Beneath this was a thick (0.6–1.4m) band of black-grey gravel which contained vast amounts of iron slag and a hard vitrified stone-like substance; this vitrified material is smooth, shiny and glass-like on one surface, its other surfaces being more perforated or aerated and appearing like iron slag. Small amounts of charcoal and burnt white stone (powdery in nature) were also found in this context. A small amount of charcoal at the base of this context may prove useful in cross-checking reference material which suggests a 17th-century date for a foundry here. An 1802 statistical survey mentions vast amounts of iron ore in Murrisk barony. Likewise it is known that Col. John Browne of Westport, who was appointed lord lieutenant in Mayo in 1689, was supplying cannon balls, iron and tools of his own manufacture to the garrisons of Athlone and Galway (Mulloy 1981, 34).
There was nothing of archaeological significance from any of the further three trenches, with the exception of a pocket of iron slag from Trench 4 which had obviously been scattered here at a later time.
Reference
Mulloy, S. 1981 Some 17th-century links with Brittany. Cathair na Mart 1 (1).
52 Phoenix Court, Ennis, Co. Clare
