2007:150 - CAHERMACNAGHTEN, Clare

A research excavation, funded by the Royal Irish Academy, was conducted at a building in the Cabhail Tighe Breac settlement, in the south-west corner of Cahermacnaghten townland, Burren, Co. Clare, between 18 June and 27 July 2007.

The excavation was a contribution to an ongoing field project on the late medieval law school, residence and estate landscape of the O’Davoren brehons of Cahermacnaghten. The building that was the subject of excavation sits at the base of a precipitous rock face in semi-natural wet grassland c. 30m east of a building known as ‘Cabhail Tighe Breac’, which is speculatively the 16th-century law school of the O’Davorens. The scale of the excavated building, its crude but impressively large drystone masonry and elemental use of natural rock faces as part of the structure set it apart from the other buildings in the settlement. What it has in common with Cabhail Tighe Breac is a shared topographical location on the boundary of a limestone pavement and wet grassland, and the doorways and façades of both structures face north on to a glacial depression, suggesting that the settlement was approached from the north.

The aim of the excavation was to determine when the building was first constructed, what primary role it played and when it fell out of use, with the ultimate objective of ascertaining whether it had any chronological affinity with nearby Cabhail Tighe Breac and any behavioural information that might elucidate the role of Cabhail Tighe Breac itself.

Four cuttings, totalling 27.85m2, were opened. Cutting (A) was 7m north–south by 1.8m and was laid out on the short axis of the building incorporating a small area 1.8m by 1.5m outside the entrance. It enabled an investigation of the external doorway area. Cutting (B), 5m east–west by 2m, adjoined Cutting (A) and was set out at the centre of the long axis of the building. Cutting (D), 2m east–west by 1.5m, which adjoined the north side of the east end of Cutting (B), was positioned in the north-east corner of the building. Cutting (E), 1.5m by 1.5m, lay outside the west end of the north wall of the building in order to investigate any potential deposits at the foot of the north long wall west of the doorway. A fifth cutting (C) had originally been proposed for the north-west internal corner of the site in the event that the soil cover was found to be very shallow and wall construction evidence from the other cuttings inadequate, but this did not prove to be the case and Cutting (C) was therefore not opened. Cuttings (A) and (B) were subdivided into a collective total of eighteen grid squares to facilitate faunal and environmental sampling and artefact retrieval. Cutting (A) contained nine grid squares, six of which (A1–A4 and A7–A9) measured 0.9m2. The sod over and around areas of collapse north and south of the entrance and against the base of the south wall was very fragmented and had to be removed in three larger grids. Grids A5 and A6 south and north of the entrance were 1.81m by 1.5m, while grid A9 was set out at 1.81m by 1.2m. Cutting (B) was also subdivided into nine grid squares, with B9, situated at the eastern end of the cutting, the largest at 2m by 1m, due again to the fact that the sod in that area had to be removed in fragmented pieces because of collapsed material embedded in and beneath it.

A preliminary reading of the stratification evidence from the building suggests four distinct phases of activity at the site prior to the accumulation of post-abandonment deposits in the modern period. Six deposits relating to pre-building activity on the site were identified, some of probable Neolithic origin. The focus of that earliest activity was apparently the production of shale axeheads. Some of the possible reasons why a prehistoric community or individuals gravitated towards this area of wet grassland and to the base of this particular sinuous rock face in Cahermacnaghten townland are perhaps because of a ready water supply at the foot of the limestone pavement, the availability of shale in the uplands to the north-west and south-west of the townland and the presence of a sheltered glacial depression with good arable potential 200m to the north of the rock face.

During the second phase of human activity in this corner of Cahermacnaghten a crude but impressively cyclopean building (maximum internal dimensions 9.6m north–south by 6.2m, with built walls 0.9m thick) was constructed at the base of the rock face incorporating the living rock into the south long wall and east gable of the structure. The presence of pre-construction deposits close to the foot of the south side of the rock face confirmed that the living rock could not have been quarried for the fabric of the man-made walls of the later building. Evidence for the construction of the building consisted of three entrance features and three deposits, focused mainly on the doorway area. Among the more significant of those features was a cut punch-dressed spudstone of late medieval/early modern type, with an accompanying natural stone used to wedge it in place, which ran partly beneath the west jamb-stone of the entrance. The spudstone was the only cut and dressed architectural feature recorded from the standing masonry and from the excavation.

The behavioural information from the excavation and the topographical location of the site strongly suggest that it was not a domestic building in any period of its primary use or later reuse but perhaps an outbuilding serving an agricultural purpose. The dampness of the ground in the interior of the building and its position right on the edge of wet grassland argue against a role as a dwelling or as a store for dry goods. There was no evidence recovered of a hearth, nor was there any material culture consistent with domestic life such as household utensils or pottery. No evidence was found that the building was roofed, even though, if it had a cruck roof, the crucks would not have required pad-stones in the floor but could have sprung from the bedrock itself or from the tops of the walls. There remains the possibility that the building was roofed and possibly even had a dry loft, entered from the higher limestone pavement to the south of it.

Stratigraphic evidence also suggests that the building saw quite continuous use after it was constructed, a fact that was strongly supported by the frequent renewal of metalled surfaces to assist traffic in and out of the building.

A total of 33 artefacts were recovered during the excavation, including shale axeheads, shale debitage, chert flakes, flint, a partly worked and burnished shale nodule, fragments of charred possibly worked bone, modern glass fragments and just one iron object: a fishtail chisel or gouge found at the base of the topsoil on the inside of the doorway, and of uncertain date. A total of 47 faunal samples were recovered, and several from sealed contexts, which affords the best opportunity to secure broad dating evidence for the pre-construction activity, the construction of the building, its primary use, reuse and final abandonment. Of the identifiable pieces in the small and heavily fragmented assemblage of faunal remains, species represented are cattle, sheep/goat and pig, with horse represented by a single tooth fragment. Pre-building Neolithic contexts produced sheep/goat and pig remains only. Evidence of burning was quite common and it is probable that the heavily calcined specimens were burned when discarded into a fire rather then through cooking processes.

A preliminary reading of the building suggests that it was probably constructed to house livestock or to conduct some activity associated with livestock during the active life of the Cabhail Tighe Breac settlement and afterwards. The results of radiocarbon dating of faunal remains will be essential to informing us of the life history of this building.

Department of Archaeology, School of Geography and Archaeology, NUI, Galway and Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd, Unit 4a, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14