County: Clare Site name: Caherconnell
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CL009–03010 Licence number: 08E0535; 08R0171
Author: Graham Hull, TVAS (Ireland) Ltd, Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare.
Site type: Drystone chamber, prehistoric and medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 523605m, N 699476m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.040492, -9.139182
A hand-dug trench was targeted at the remains of a drystone structure located 33m from Caherconnell cashel. The structure proved to be an approximately circular chamber (2.1m north-west/south-east by 2.3m) with a passageway at the north-east (1.5m long and c. 1m wide). The structure is partially subterranean. Artefacts recovered include probable Early Bronze Age lithics, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age pottery, stone axe fragments and three medieval coins. Partial and disarticulated human skeletal remains were found in the passageway. This bone has given a radiocarbon date of the 15th to 17th centuries ad. Partially articulated pig skeletons were found within the chamber.
A radiocarbon determination for a primary deposit of bone within the chamber gave a date of cal ad 1436–1479 and bone from outside the chamber gave a radiocarbon date of ad 1042–1206.
