2006:1929 - TOUREEN, Tipperary

Toureen Peakaun is the monastery of Cluain Aird Mo-Becóc, which was founded in the 7th century and is occasionally mentioned in the early annals and martyrologies. The second season of a University College Cork research and training excavation was carried out there over four weeks in April 2006 (see Excavations 2005, No. 1469, for results of the first season). The ritual core of the site features several monuments in state care, but its full extent is indicated by a c. 200m diameter enclosure, some of which is traceable in the surrounding field banks.

In 2006 two trenches were opened in the field east of the church. Trench C (5m by 10m, with a 5m by 2m extension at the south), which was begun in 2005, was reopened and a 5m by 4m extension was added at the west. It was fully excavated in 2006. A wide linear feature evident in a resistivity survey and DTM turned out to be the original channel of Toureen Stream. This had been deliberately backfilled and diverted to the west, probably in modern times. In the early medieval period, a number of deposits were laid down to the north of the stream to produce a well-drained area suitable for occupation. Subsequently several deposits were dumped against the north bank of the stream to consolidate it. An east–west-oriented linear channel, which would have filled with water from the stream, was also dug but was backfilled soon afterwards. Subsequently a series of pits associated with ironworking (which produced slag and furnace fragments) were dug into the upper surface of this backfilled channel. Some post-holes and other structural evidence were also uncovered.

Trench D (20m by 2m, with a 1.5m by 1.5m east extension near the south end) was opened to locate the enclosure at the north-east of the site, where resistivity survey, DTM and field-walking had failed to locate it. It was discovered that, instead of a bank and ditch, in this area the enclosure comprised a small west–east-oriented natural palaeochannel which fed into the Toureen Stream and, immediately inside this, a substantial palisade represented by a series of post-holes. The northern 15m by 2m of this trench, which lay outside the enclosure, produced no archaeology whatsoever, despite the fact that the area was quite well drained. In contrast, in the small area excavated within the enclosure, several pits, post- and stake-holes were uncovered, along with the north edge of what the DTM suggests is another artificial occupation platform.

Five radiocarbon dates from various contexts in Trenches C and D all produced very similar date ranges, centring on the late 7th to the first half of the 8th century. The activity in both trenches therefore probably took place during or soon after the lifetime of the founder, Beccán, who died in 689 (Annals of Inishfallen). Thus, as was hoped, this project is informing us about how late 7th-/8th-century insular clerics believed monasteries should be laid out and organised. Excavation will resume at Toureen in April 2007.