County: Mayo Site name: CARROWKEEL
Sites and Monuments Record No.: MA038-004---- Licence number: 02E0598 ext.
Author: Suzanne Zajac, Mayo County Council
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 509643m, N 817071m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.094788, -9.381332
Further work (see Excavations 2002, No. 1382, for the 2002 season) was carried out on a ringfort, west of Crossmolina, as part of the realignment of the N59 (see also No. 1299, Excavations 2003, 03E0381). A 6m-wide strip was taken off the north-facing section through the long axis of the site. This included the inner bank and interior of the ringfort. The outer ditch in this area was overlaid by the road development and preserved in situ. An oval pit 2.2m long by 1.15m wide, dug into natural gravel, underlay disturbed ploughsoils in the interior of the site. An organic deposit overlay natural gravel to the south of the pit. Both features contained slag, corroded metal objects, animal bone and bone pins. The pins were identified as possible weaving tools (Hurley 2003). The inner bank was again composed of successive layers of redeposited boulder clay and overlay what may be an earlier enclosure. Metal finds below the enclosure conflict with results from last year's work that suggested a prehistoric date for the earliest levels of the site.
Reference
Hurley, M.F. 2003 Artefact of skeletal material. In R.M. Cleary and M.F. Hurley, Excavations in Cork city 1984-2000.
Civic Offices, Ballina, Co. Mayo
