2008:839 - Faughart Lower 10, Louth

The site encloses a small natural rise in the underlying bedrock which slopes in all directions, but more steeply to the west and north-west where a small stream is located at the base of a large slope. Site 117 was excavated as part of Site 116, while to the west both Sites 118 and 119 (see Nos 840 and 841 below) were excavated.
The smallest enclosure on the site consisted of a small ditch which encircled the top of the natural rise enclosing an oval-shaped area with a maximum diameter of 29m north–south (incomplete). A small 5m-wide entrance gap was excavated at the north, but no corresponding feature could be located to the south as this was beyond the limit of the excavation. This ditch had been allowed to silt up and was then recut with the inner edge being lined with stones to act as a revetment for a bank which ran along the inner edge of the ditch.
Sited c. 5m away from the inner ditch was a much larger ditch (430). This ditch enclosed an area c. 40m east–west and had been dug into the natural bedrock or subsoil to a depth of 1.4m; it had a maximum width of 3m. There was no evidence for an entrance, although as this ditch ran beyond the limits of the CPO to the south it is likely to be sited there. The edges of this ditch were steeply sloped, almost vertical in places. On the eastern side of the site the ditch appears to have filled more rapidly, possibly as a result of slippage of the accompanying bank, which would have rested upon a much greater slope at this point. On the eastern side of the site this ditch was filled from its outer edge, the fills being a series of tip lines of redeposited subsoils and gravels, which are most likely the result of the construction of another large ditch (25), which for most of its length runs along the same line as ditch (430) (and cut into the fills of the earlier ditch), except for the eastern side of the site where the site was expanded by 5m and the excavated material used to fill the still open ditch (430).
Ditch (25) enclosed an area measuring 45m (east–west) in diameter and was up to 3m in width with the base located at a depth of 1.2m. There was no entrance evident in the ditch, which again continued beyond the limits of the excavation. A small, probable iron-smelting furnace was found dug into the basal fill of the ditch located on the south-eastern side of the site, while sometime after backfilling there were several large pits, two souterrains and a well, all dug through the fills.
The final ditches, (729) and (24), enclosed an area measuring 55m east–west, with an entrance located at the north-west and a second probable entrance at the south-west. Ditch (729) was the larger of the two, sited on the western edge of the site, measuring up to 2.5m in width and dug into the subsoil to a maximum depth of 1.3m. One definite terminal was found in the north-west, with a second in the south-east, although it is possible that this was due to a rise in the natural bedrock, which may have proved too difficult to dig through. The second ditch that formed this enclosing phase on the site, (24), was much smaller in size than ditch (729), with a maximum depth of 0.5m and a width of 1.2m. A single terminal was found at the north-western extent of this ditch forming a 5m wide entrance with the terminal of ditch (729), while the south-eastern extent of the ditch ran beyond the limits of the excavation.
The final enclosing feature on the site was a large, rubble-cored, stone-faced wall, which was only extant on the western edge of the site, measuring 2.5m in width and surviving to a maximum of 4 courses. This had been built upon the fills of the partially infilled ditch (729). It began at the terminal of this ditch and ran from north-west through to west and then beyond the limits of the excavation in the south-west.
Built into this large stone bank was the entrance to an earth-cut souterrain, with a second entrance located within the main portion of the site. This souterrain comprised of a single stone-lined passageway which ran for 16m eastwards from the entrance before turning sharply and running 15m southwards to the second entrance. There was no chamber within the souterrain. There were no capstones in situ and only one possible capstone was discovered within the backfilled passageway. Resting on the floor of the souterrain was found a large iron plough coulter and plough sock, while within the fills were several possible millstone fragments, a small clay crucible, several pins and a quantity of potsherds.
A total of 770 burials were excavated from the site. These appear to include all age groups, male and female, and a concentration of babies, which suggests that the site may have served as a cillín. A preliminary estimate breaks the burial down to 525 adults, 150 juveniles and 95 infants. Of this the vast majority, 641, were in simple earth-cut graves, 81 were in stone-lines graves, 32 in long cists, a further 8 reused an already occupied cist and 8 which used a natural crevice in the bedrock. The burials were mainly concentrated at the north-eastern quadrant of the site, with others found less sparsely across the rest of the site. In general the burials were laid east–west but in some cases they were north–south, but this may have been due to space restrictions and the nature of the underlying bedrock preventing a true east–west burial.
The finds from the site ranged from numerous sherds of pottery, metal pins (iron and bronze/copper), blue-glass beads, spindle whorls, bone combs and pins, iron knives, a lead ingot, several possible millstone fragments, a small clay crucible and iron slag.

Editor’s note: This report arrived too late for inclusion in the bulletin for 2005, when the work took place.