County: Sligo Site name: Inch Island
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: 06E0946
Author: Christina Fredengren, The Discovery Programme, 34 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.
Site type: Cairn
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 571658m, N 800136m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.949772, -8.431756
This cairn was one of six identified by the Discovery Programme’s Lake Settlement Project during a survey of Inch Island in May and June 2006. All six cairns were located along an all-year dry former shoreline at the southern side of the island, facing a crannog (SL047–003).
The cairn appeared as a concentration of exposed small stones with further overgrown stones around the centre that could be felt underfoot. It was half-sectioned east–west and the southern half excavated. The central cairn was c. 3m in diameter and c. 0.5m high.
The excavation revealed a central cairn of small stones, on average 75mm by 100mm, with larger stones, on average 175mm by 200mm, lying beneath these and spreading out to the east. The majority were of red or yellow sandstone, many of them brittle. A small silt context was present beneath the central exposed stones. A number of large stones measuring on average 0.25m by 0.45m were visible through the topsoil and formed an irregular semicircular shape around the southern half, the lake side, of the cairn. It is possible that these may have functioned as some kind of kerbstones, as the other cairn stones seem to be confined within this semicircle. It also became obvious that the former natural shoreline contained a large amount of natural stones.
A gravel layer which is not thought to be archaeological was exposed below the stones, directly overlying the natural boulder clay. This gravel is thought to be part of the former natural shoreline; therefore it would seem that the cairn was constructed directly on the shoreline. Due to the lack of artefacts or ecofacts, no date can be obtained from this site.
The excavation has shown that this was a purpose-built cairn composed of stones of a particular size and shape. Unfortunately the site did not produce any material that would indicate why it was built, and unless any bone has completely disintegrated there is nothing to indicate that this was a burial site. Its interpretation has to be sought through its landscape context, perhaps understanding the cairns as part of the shoreline area in front of the crannog. The cairns can be seen to mark out a line towards the crannog of Rathtinaun, SL047–021, which is known to have been active in the later phases of prehistory.
