2002:0201 - SHANNAKEA BEG, Clare

The monument consisted of a subcircular burnt mound, 7.2m in diameter, lying above a stone-lined trough in the centre of a boggy hollow between two gently sloping hillocks to the north and south, 200m from the rocky shore of the Shannon Estuary. Charcoal was largely absent from the mound deposits. The mound had a maximum depth of 0.1m and covered a centrally placed subrectangular trough. The trough measured 0.92m north–south by 1.35m and was 0.25m deep. It cut an earlier linear feature that possibly functioned as a water conduit into the trough. Stone flags lined the base and sides of the trough, and it was filled with burnt stone and charcoal. It was cut by a later post-medieval stone culvert, thought to be contemporary with the cultivation ridges identified on the sloping hillside around the marshy ground in which the site lies. The uncalibrated radiocarbon date established for the site from hazel charcoal retrieved from under the flagstones lining the trough was 2410±60 BP (GrN-27086). This indicates a Late Bronze or Early Iron Age date for the monument, with a 2-sigma calendar date of 761–393 BC.

The topography around the site is characterised by a low, gently rolling landscape, less than 30m high, along the northern banks of the Shannon Estuary. The estuary is narrow at this point, and there are clear views of Foynes and Aughinish islands in Limerick to the south-east and the mouth of the Shannon Estuary visible to the west. The ground rises to the north. The site was discovered as a result of monitoring conducted for Bord Gáis Éireann. Post-medieval cultivation ridges were identified on sloping dry ground at the western end of the area monitored. Crockery dating from the 19th and 20th centuries was recorded from the topsoil. This was interpreted as an indication of manuring and was thought to be contemporaneous and associated with the cultivation ridges and the existing field system.

The identification of the site in Shannakea Beg begins a process of filling in ‘blank areas’ in the regional distribution patterns of prehistoric sites in County Clare. Currently, these patterns include the identification of dense settlement remains in the ‘fossilised’ landscape of the Burren, in contrast to the ‘blank areas’ in west Clare (Grogan and Condit 2000, 26). The route of the proposed gas pipeline through Clare has the potential to address these issues of visibility, and the discovery of the site in Shannakea Beg indicates the potential for further discoveries as the new gas pipeline is constructed north through Clare in 2002.

Reference
Grogan, E. and Condit, T. 2000 The funerary landscape of Clare in space and time. In C. Ó Murchadha (ed.), County Clare studies: essays in memory of Gerald O’Connell, Seán Ó Murchadha, Thomas Coffey and Pat Flynn, 9–29. Ennis.

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