2006:1715 - CARNS, Roscommon

The Medieval Rural Settlement Project carried out an excavation in Carns townland as part of a broader investigation of relict field boundaries and deserted settlements in the O’Conor lordship of north Roscommon. Carns was chosen as a case study, based on the presence of extensive earthworks representing relict settlements and a field system that is tentatively dated to the later Middle Ages. The ridge occupied by Carns townland was the focus of an important prehistoric cemetery. The townland takes its name from a prehistoric burial cairn known as Carnfree, named after Fraoch, the hero of an early medieval tale, Táin Bó Fraích. A tradition that St Patrick chose this location for a church, the Domhnach Mór Maighe Selga, also suggests a concerted effort to integrate this important place into early Irish Christian tradition between the 5th and 7th centuries. The area subsequently became central to the exercise of the O’Conor kingship of Connacht; they were inaugurated on the prehistoric mound of Carnfree from at least the early 13th century. The presence of a moated site completes a broader ‘landscape of lordship’ comprising church, residence and inauguration site.

The focus of excavation was a large circular enclosure (RO028–075) classified as ‘ecclesiastical remains’. The 19th-century antiquarian John O’Donovan had suggested this was the site of the Patrician church of Domhnach Mór Maighe Seilge, but in the absence of standing religious remains this had yet to be confirmed. The enclosure (c. 130m diameter) was incorporated into a later co-axial field system that is likely to be of medieval date. The resulting pattern of small fields or gardens around it suggests that the enclosure continued to be a focus of settlement and habitation. The final phase is distinguished by the removal and rebuilding of parts of the enclosure and the surrounding field boundaries. Up to seven potential house sites located inside and around the enclosure appear to be associated with this phase.

The purpose of the excavation was to establish a clear function for the site and to ascertain if there was a medieval phase. Establishing clear dates for the site’s abandonment and occupation would also inform the relative chronology of relict field enclosure in the vicinity. Two discrete areas were investigated: the site of a building located near the centre of the enclosure and an area on the periphery of the enclosure, where it adjoins a relict field bank. Investigation of the building foundations exposed the west gable-end of a medieval church and part of an extension that may have had a residential function. Both phases incorporate punch-dressed stones, indicating a 15th–17th-century date. Burials pre- and post-dating the construction of the building indicate a pattern of long-term burial and confirmed a religious element to the site. The discovery of an early medieval lignite bracelet and a collapsed ogham stone, of 5th- or 6th-century date, makes it likely that this is, in fact, the site of the Patrician church of Domhnach Mór Maighe Seilge. This assertion is further supported by excavation along the perimeter of the enclosure, which revealed that the site was at one time enclosed by a 2m-thick drystone wall, typical of early church sites.

A field boundary, post-dating the drystone church enclosure and associated with the wider field system, was also excavated. Beneath it a linear feature containing a large quantity of well-preserved carbonised cereal remains is being interpreted as a possible kiln flue. All soils sampled have yielded a variety of cereal types such as rye, barley, wheat and oats (identification by Susan Lyons, Headland Archaeology Ltd). This picture is supported by the recovery of rotary quern fragments from throughout the site. This evidence, when considered in conjunction with the house sites and garden enclosures, suggests there was an agricultural settlement focused on the church.

An earlier phase, probably of prehistoric date, was revealed by a geophysical survey (06R0081) conducted by Dr Paul Gibson and Dot George, NUI Maynooth. It consists of a multivallate enclosure surrounding a figure-of-eight structure. Excavation of one of the enclosing elements has established that it was a ditch, 1.6m in depth, which tapered towards a rounded base; animal bone retrieved from the bottom will hopefully establish a date for this earlier phase. Intriguingly, the church precinct wall carefully encloses this earlier phase, which suggests there was a deliberate attempt to incorporate the earlier site into Christian tradition.

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