2008:883 - Belderrig, Mayo

Excavations continued in 2008 at Belderrig, Co. Mayo. The project is funded by the National Committee for Archaeology of the Royal Irish Academy. On 2–20 June, a team focused on an annexe to Trench 1. The aims of the season were to establish the character of the potential circular structure identified in 2007 (see Excavations 2007, No. 1219), to attempt to obtain samples for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating beneath the field wall and to establish stratigraphic relationships between the ‘Neolithic’ and ‘Mesolithic’ areas.
The results were good, facilitated by very good weather. Much of the archaeology uncovered appears to be Neolithic in character but in one corner of the trench clear stratigraphic relationships between the Mesolithic stony layers and the Neolithic surfaces were identified.
The dominant feature of the annexe was a large stone field wall, running broadly north-north-west/south-south-east. The wall was constructed of two faces of large orthostats set into a cobble spread with no foundation trench. The orthostats had assumedly been capped by drystone walling, but this is now tumbled – and indeed many of the orthostats were displaced. Two sections through the wall were excavated, and the wall may have had a significant impact on the local development of iron pan. The walls have undoubtedly acted as a drain beneath the bog, and were full of redeposited sand. This has serious implications for any attempt to date their construction. A small ‘lynchet’ was present on the upslope of the wall. Field observations, alongside advice from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, suggested that, given the degree of movement of sediments, full OSL profiling of the site was required to obtain good-quality samples. OSL samples were therefore not taken this summer.
Adjoining the wall to the north-east was a range of features including a D-shaped cairn, partially excavated in 2007. Excavation of this feature was completed in this year. This cairn lay near spreads of ‘occupation soil’ and the remains of a post-hole or pit.
To the west (downslope) of the wall was a small C-shaped structure defined by low stone walls and a central post-hole. Set into an occupation soil this structure contained a number of concave scrapers and is broadly paralleled in morphology – if not size – by the ‘hut’ sites at the smaller Ballyglass tombs (Ó Nualláin 1998). Very comparable structures were also present at the excavations by Gretta Byrne in advance of development of the Visitors Centre at Céide (Excavations 1989, 41). The Belderrig example from this year is provisionally interpreted as a middle Neolithic structure.
Substantial quantities of quartz were recovered, along with a range of other raw materials. Artefacts included two polished stone axes, one placed into/onto the cobble foundation layer of the wall.
Reference
Ó Nualláin, S. 1998 Excavation of the Smaller Court-Tomb and Associated Hut Sites at Ballyglass, Co. Mayo. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 125–175.