County: Clare Site name: Caherconnell
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CL009–030 Licence number: 10E0119
Author: Michelle Comber, Archaeology, School of Geography and Archaeology, NUI, Galway.
Site type: Sub-square drystone enclosure
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 523567m, N 699364m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.039480, -9.139722
This excavation targeted a sub-square drystone, cashel-like enclosure in the townland of Caherconnell, the Burren, Co. Clare. A circular cashel lies 30–40m to the north (CL009–030–08), and the main cashel of Caherconnell is another 50m or so north of that (CL009–030–10).
The enclosure is located on a narrow, level shelf, with slightly higher ground to the north and lower ground to the south. This site is within an archaeological complex on the RMP, but not specifically marked or numbered. It is a sub-square or slightly D-shaped drystone enclosure, with visible internal and external features. The walls of the enclosure are of limestone, comprising an internal and external face with slightly smaller stones forming the core, 2.7m wide originally.
This particular site type has not previously been excavated. A number of such sites are known from across the Burren; however, nothing is known of their chronology or function. From surface survey, they appear to form a ringfort/cashel sub-type. This particular sub-square enclosure forms part of an archaeologically rich landscape in and around the townland of Caherconnell.
Four hand-dug cuttings were excavated at the site, three within its interior and one across an adjacent field wall. Features uncovered in the interior included a circular house (4m diameter), part of another subcircular structure and a number of walls subdividing the space outside the structures. Associated deposits were rich in faunal remains and a quantity of artifacts was also recovered. The artifacts included an iron pin, knife, rivet, socket, vessel fragments, fragment of lead, copper-alloy fitting, blue-and-white glass bead, fragment of a rotary quernstone, spindle-whorl broken during manufacture, whetstones, stone axe reused as a whetstone, possible stone bracelet fragment, shaft of a bone pin, fragments of a decorated bone comb, chert tools and waste, and several small pieces of metalworking slag.
Initial analysis, based on the bead, comb and rotary quern, indicates that the enclosure was used during the early medieval period. Identifying this as primary or secondary activity awaits 14C results.
