2009:107 - GLENCURRAN CAVE, TULLYCOMMON, Clare

This, the fourth season of excavations at Glencurran Cave (see Excavations 2004, No. 183, 04E0432; Excavations 2005, No. 163, 05E0379, and Excavations 2008, No. 149), was funded by the Royal Irish Academy and the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. This year the blocking feature that had been constructed across the cave entrance was partially excavated to locate datable material. A fragment of a cow bone that rested immediately beneath the stone setting returned an early medieval date. In 2008 the deposits of calcite contained within the upper section of an artificial stone structure (referred to as a cairn) were excavated to the upper floor level of the cave. In 2009 the surrounding wall of this section was removed, exposing a platform on which the wall had been built. The central deposits of calcite continued downwards within a sunken chamber defined by stone walls. Excavation continued in this chamber area to a depth of 2.3–2.53m below the ceiling of the cave. Bones from the pre-cairn levels returned Bronze Age dates.
It is now clear that the building of the monument took place in two main phases. The first phase was the building of the ^lower cairn’ consisting of a sunken chamber surrounded by stone, culminating in a basal platform at the level of the upper floor of the cave. The second phase or ^upper cairn’ consisted of the coursed wall and upstanding elements of the cairn, rising above the upper floor level.