County: Clare Site name: CAHERCONNELL
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: CL009–03010 08E0535 ext.
Author: Graham Hull, TVAS (Ireland) Ltd, Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare.
Site type: Bronze Age and medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 523605m, N 699476m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.040492, -9.139182
In 2009 a second season of excavation took place next to the 2008 excavation area (Excavations 2008, No. 109) within a dolmen 33m to the south of Caherconnell cashel. Over 80 pieces of prehistoric pottery identified as from vase-tradition food vessels and urns and from cordoned urns were found. It is possible that these represent a cremation cemetery destroyed after 1500 BC. Also found were a large quantity of chert tools of an unrefined nature, seven post-holes that probably represent a prehistoric house and a plentiful amount of small pieces of animal bone that probably indicate food waste and these, together with the pottery, may suggest that a Bronze Age domestic structure has been identified.
A copper-alloy stick pin measuring 160mm long was also found, which supports the notion that Caherconnell cashel was the residence of an aristocratic Gaelic chief in the period after the 10th century.
