County: Longford Site name: MULLAGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 09E0311
Author: Mandy Stephens, CRDS Ltd, Greenanstown, Stamullan, Co. Meath.
Site type: Iron Age bowl furnace
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 611550m, N 775625m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.730160, -7.824956
Site 1, Mullagh, was located 1.95km west of Longford town. This was one of three sites identified in the townland along the route of the N5 Longford bypass. Areas of bog and marsh surround the low hill on which the site is located. Excavation revealed an Iron Age bowl furnace, a pit and a post-hole. The site had been identified in the course of test-trenching and a bowl furnace and associated pit were identified by Graham Hull of TVAS Ltd (Excavations 2008, No. 803, 08E0861). Sampled material from the bowl furnace returned a date of 409–386 cal BC.
An area around the furnace was subsequently subject to excavation. The furnace was circular in plan, U-shaped in section, with a short linear extension on its north-eastern side, interpreted as a flue. The bowl measured 0.66m by 0.63m by 0.65m and was filled by deposits of silt, burnt clay, and charcoal. Lumps of vitrified material adhered to the upper surface of the furnace and the fills contained lumps and fragments of slag.
A contemporary settlement may have been located in proximity to Site 1, whose inhabitants exploited the bogs in the vicinity for ore and used Mullagh for industrial processing. Enclosure sites dot the landscape around Mullagh. While many of these have been classified as ringforts, which are likely to post-date the furnace, a number of unclassified enclosures may have prehistoric origins, including an enclosure (LF013–024) located south-east of Site 1. Furthermore, a significant archaeological site has been excavated at Site 2, Mullagh (see No. 561, below), 09E314). The latter site is located a short distance south-west of Site 1.
