2007:388 - CARNMEEN, Down

During May 2006 as part of the A1 Beechhill to Cloghogue archaeological investigations a number of trial-trenches totalling 250m2, under licence AE/06/107, were excavated across a number of fields adjacent to the present A1 and DOW046–024. This evaluation revealed the presence of a ringfort and possible burial tomb/souterrain.

An open area excavation was started in December 2006, under licence AE/06/254, covering an area of 8000m2. Subsequently a scheme of strip, map and record, under licence AE/07/17, was conducted in the fields to the east, covering an area of c. 4ha.

The site was located in a series of fields to the west of the present A1 carriageway on the southern slopes of the Newry River valley at an altitude of 35m AOD. The ground gently slopes down towards the Newry River, with two narrow ridges of land extending north out of the valley side. On both these ridges the ground slopes away steeply on all sides except the south, offering good views across the valley. The excavation revealed the presence of prehistoric pits and artefacts, an Early Christian ringfort and souterrain, a second souterrain, domestic and metalworking areas, a medieval building, a small ring-ditch and a series of Early Christian, medieval and post-medieval ditches and field boundaries.

The prehistoric activity comprised a small number of isolated groups of pits and artefacts scattered across the site. The pits generally contained single fills of waste material, possibly from fire- or cooking-related activities, with small amounts of flint debitage. The artefactual evidence consisted of a few hundred poor-quality flints, including a few better-quality scrapers and arrowheads, a polished stone axe and pottery shards.

At the end of one of the ridges a ringfort had been constructed with partially enclosing ditches and rampart, a causeway entrance, a souterrain and a number of internal structures. The ringfort had an internal diameter of 30m, with two ditches, 3m wide and up to 1.8m deep, on its eastern, southern and western sides. The ditch did not fully enclose the ringfort and the northern edge of the ringfort was covered by the steep sides of the end of the ridge. The two ditches were separated by a natural seam of intrusive granite, 2.7m wide, that functioned as a causeway entrance on the south-east of the ringfort. Behind the ditch a rampart had been constructed from the spoil from the ditch, between 1.2m and 2.2m wide, though this had been severely truncated by post-medieval agricultural attempts to level the fields. An L-shaped souterrain, 10m long, 1m wide and 1m deep, was located in the north-eastern portion of the site cut into the underlying bedrock and this had been partially walled. The internal structures were represented by over 90 post-holes and pits, suggesting at least two round houses and a possible rectangular house, and were concentrated in the north-western part of the ringfort. An occupation deposit across this part of the site produced over 200 sherds of pottery, metalworking slag, ceramic burnt material, iron artefacts, part of a lignite bracelet and a pounding stone.

A second, larger, souterrain was located 50m to the west of the ringfort on level ground below the second ridge. It was 17m long, 2m wide and 1.8m deep with drystone cobble walls and a small entrance on its eastern side.

Two figure-of-eight-shaped corn-drying kilns lay to the south-west and west of the ringfort. Both these kilns consisted of a short shallow flue and deeper circular bowl, 2m long, 0.9m wide and 0.6m deep, and showed extensive oxidisation on the sides. To the south-east of the ringfort lay an area of industrial activity with a number of pits and deposits. Many of the pits had heavily oxidised sides and lower fills of charcoal and ash. One of the pits contained a broken quernstone at its base, while another had its sides lined with stone. These pits also produced quantities of pottery, metalworking slag, hammer-scale and burnt bone.

After the initial phase of Early Christian occupation there was a secondary phase of medieval reuse and occupation of the site. This phase of activity was centred on a stone-built, clay-bonded possible two-storey building that occupied the north-western part of the interior of the ringfort. Only the base of the western side of the building survived, 9m long, 0.75m wide and two to three courses high, with an outer skin of roughly squared facing blocks with a rubble core. Abutting this wall were two sections of additional walling, which may represent the base for an external staircase. The occupation deposit from the building produced over 600 sherds of pottery (including everted-rim ware), metalworking slag, iron, copper, lead objects, whetstones and a quernstone. The entrance to the ringfort was widened by demolishing part of the rampart and using this rubble to fill a portion of the ditch to the west of the causeway, and building a single skin retaining wall parallel to the original causeway, extending the width to 5.8m. The rampart terminal was subsequently rebuilt to narrow the entrance to the ringfort. In addition the souterrain to the west was subject to a number of modifications that turned part of the passage into a flue for use as a furnace for metalworking before being gradually backfilled and abandoned. The sides of the passage walls showed extensive heat cracking and the fills of the souterrain contained large amounts of metalworking slag. The souterrain in the interior of the ringfort was also abandoned and subject to gradual backfilling, although it is not currently clear if this occurred during the Early Christian or later medieval occupation phase.

A series of three ditches were constructed on the south-eastern edge of the ringfort, running downslope into a stream that drained into the Newry River. These ditches were between 6m and 20m long, 1.5m wide and up to 0.5m deep and orientated south-west to north-west. The ditches had gradually silted up and in some instances had been recut. The fills produced numerous finds of pottery and metalworking debris, iron artefacts and a copper stick-pin. In the fields to the east of the ringfort were a set of segmented ditches oriented south-west to north-east, between 10m and 20m long, 1.2–1.6m wide and up to 0.5m deep. The lower fill of these ditches appears to be a backfilling event, with the upper fills being silting events. To the east of the ditches was a ring-ditch enclosure, 8m in diameter, 0.8–1.4m wide and 0.4m deep. A shallow rectilinear medieval ditch truncated the upper fills of the segmented ditches.

During the post-medieval period the whole site was subjected to a number of reorganisations, with new field boundaries being constructed and attempts to level out the ramparts and ditches of the ringfort and infilling of the souterrain. Ridge-and-furrow cultivation was evident across the entire site.

Post-excavation work is continuing.

13 Jane Street, Edinburgh, EH6 5HE