County: Fermanagh Site name: MAGHERADUNBAR
Sites and Monuments Record No.: FER210-010 Licence number: AE/03/75
Author: Colin Dunlop, Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 616459m, N 847925m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.379694, -7.746639
A scheduled monument lies in the townland of Magheradunbar, 1.7 km west of Lower Lough Erne and 4.5km to the north-west of Enniskillen. The site is approximately 70m in diameter and is defined to the north and south by a shallow bank and ditch; the east and west is defined by the natural slope of the landscape. As part of a preliminary investigation, a test-trench 1.5m wide and 70m long was excavated north–south through the centre of the site.
Most activity within the site seems to have taken place in the flatter area between the northern bank and the upper slope of the inner ditch, a roughly oval area of 36m by 50m (east–west). The trench uncovered several bodies in the southernmost section of this flat area (six infants and two adolescents) and possibly an inner and outer wall of a structure to the north of this. The bodies were mostly oriented east–west and some were buried both on top and through the other burials. The orientation suggests that the burials were most likely to be Christian, while the multiple overlapping burials suggests that the site was in use over a prolonged period.
The artefacts from the site (two badly decayed iron blades, a piece of shattered amber, two pieces of lignite bracelet and a bronze ring) all suggested an Early Christian date. Radiocarbon analysis of a tooth gave a date range of AD 660–810.
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