County: Fermanagh Site name: Castle Hume Hotel, Ross Inner
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: AE/05/35
Author: Chris Long, Gahan & Long Ltd, 7–9 Castlereagh Street, Belfast, BT5 4NE.
Site type: Pits, spreads and post-holes
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 619945m, N 849478m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.393529, -7.692886
During monitoring of the site of a new hotel which overlooked Castle Hume Lough in April 2005, two areas of archaeological activity were identified on an east-facing slope.
Area 1 consisted of four spreads, three pits and two post-holes. All of the features had charcoal-rich fills and two of the pits also had deposits of oxidised clay, but there was no indication of in situ burning. Small quantities of burnt bone and slag were also recovered from these pits and from one of the post-holes. This would infer that some limited small-scale cooking and possible metalworking occurred in the immediate vicinity of this site.
Area 2, located c. 25m to the west of Area 1, was comprised of four pits, three of which were interconnected. Again there were clear signs of burning, as most of the pits produced charcoal-rich fills with oxidised clay, but there was no in situ burning. This would also suggest limited, short-term occupation in this area.
Editor’s note: Although this licence was issued during 2005, the report on the work was not received in time for inclusion in the bulletin of that year.
