County: Leitrim Site name: FENAGH: Mullaghnameely
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E1402
Author: Christopher Read, North West Archaeological Services
Site type: Ring-ditch
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 610762m, N 808630m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.026762, -7.835734
The site of the proposed development is located at Mullaghnameely townland, on the Ballinamore to Fenagh road on the outskirts of Fenagh village, Co. Leitrim. The site comprises a triangular plot of land fronting on to the west side of the road. The eastern half of the site is relatively flat and is bounded by the road to the east. The western half of the site slopes steeply down to a small stream. Located on the far side of the stream are four megalithic tombs, including LE025–092 (portal tomb), and three passage tombs, including LE025–093(01–03). The proposed development site is located in the middle of an extensive multi-period archaeological complex that includes, apart from the tombs mentioned above, Fenagh Abbey, an Early Christian monastic enclosure and medieval churches (LE025–096) located to the south of the development site.
Monitoring of topsoil removal revealed in the centre of the site an arcing cut feature, 0.8–1m wide. This cut was exposed manually, revealing a subcircular feature measuring 12m east–west by 11m. It has the appearance of a ring-ditch or more likely a levelled/scarped ring-barrow. The encircling ditch measured 0.7–1.1m wide and 0.2–0.4m deep. There were no internal features, with the exception of two animal burrows. The excavation of the ditch was complicated, as much of it was refilled, either intentionally or through later levelling of the site, with redeposited natural subsoil. Numerous pockets of charcoal-enriched soil were revealed below the redeposited subsoil, although no cremated bone or other finds were revealed.
The ring-ditch/barrow was fully excavated. While numerous samples were taken, they have yet to be analysed and dated. The location of the site within such a substantial prehistoric landscape and the retrieval of a single large flint blade and numerous smaller pieces of struck chert from the excavation and its immediate surrounds confirm its early (probably Bronze Age) date.
Cloonfad Cottage, Cloonfad, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim
