2007:1483 - CARNS, Roscommon

As part of a broader survey of settlement and land use in Carns townland (see No. 1482, Excavations 2007, 06E0655 ext.) the Medieval Rural Settlement Project targeted a deserted settlement that had been inserted into and reused part of a co-axial field system that appears to be of medieval origin. The purpose of the excavation was to establish dates for the occupation and abandonment of the deserted settlement and to investigate patterns of land use in the vicinity of the settlement. Two areas were identified for excavation: firstly the earthwork remains of a two-roomed dwelling with opposing entrances and secondly a nearby field boundary and cultivation ridges adjacent to it.

Excavation established that the dwelling consisted of earthen walls constructed around earth-fast posts; artefacts recovered indicate that it was post-medieval in date. Finds were scarce but included a bone-handled iron knife, a glass-bead necklace, and the stem of a clay pipe. Two potential hearth sites were identified and other spreads of burnt clay were exposed against the interior walls of the building. A lead pistol shot was found impacted against the wall beside the northern doorway of the dwelling. When taken in conjunction with the glass bead necklace which had been dropped on the stone threshold of the same doorway, it suggests there was an altercation leading to an eviction or abandonment of the dwelling. Arcs of charcoal-rich clay, which were evident outside both doorways, were probably the result of periodic cleaning of the interior. A potential midden mound to the north of the house was also half-sectioned. No bone or organic material was recovered but fragments of a glazed red earthenware chamber pot suggest the mound was a domestic dump within a yard that surrounded the house.

Excavation through a series of cultivation ridges led to the recovery of an 18th-century pottery assemblage which corroborates the dating of the house and probably the rest of the settlement. Excavation of the boundary, which is aligned on a bell barrow and appears to have been part of the earlier field system, revealed the foundations of a drystone wall. A subrectangular pit that was found under the wall remains undated, although prehistoric lithics were found in the vicinity.