2012:252 - Caldragh Graveyard, Drennan, Boa Island, Fermanagh

A small trench (3m x 3m) was opened centred on the Boa Island figure over one week in September. The investigations were conducted in order to examine the area around the sculpture in advance of the erection of a shelter to protect it from on-going erosion. The Boa Island figure is currently supported on a concrete base erected in the 1930s and in 2001 one half of the base of the figure was discovered by Richard Warner of the Ulster Museum (Warner 2003). Soon after its discovery the stone was pulled up from its find spot, unrecorded and by persons unknown, and is now set on the surface to one side of the concrete plinth at the base of the Boa Island figure. The discovery of this large lower section indicates that the sculpture was once a much taller piece and that a substantial segment is still missing but is potentially located in the immediate vicinity. It was hoped that a detailed search of the ground in and around the figure might locate more of this base. Stones within the trench were all closely examined but no recognisable carved fragments were identified during the course of the excavation.

The cut for the modern concrete plinth that supports the Boa Island figure was identified but not excavated and numerous coins were found across the square (No. 301), especially in and around both figures. The coins ranged in date from 1959 to 2010 and comprised predominantly sterling (56%) and Euros (25%). Other recovered objects included some rounded stones and pebbles, seashells (dog whelk and scallop), artificial flowers, beads, a couple of hair clips, a candle and pieces of quartz. A couple of fragments of bone were also recovered. These are identifiable as fragments of limb-bones and probably human but are undiagnostic.

Although the excavations were relatively superficial, the absence of any finds of pre-20th-century date is of note. This absence might suggest that the Boa Island figure is not in its original setting and possibly that it was located somewhere else in the graveyard or, as with the Lusty More figure, that it too was brought in from somewhere else. Given du Noyer’s illustrations, however, we know the Boa Island figure was here in 1841 at least (Lanigan Wood 2004, 38) and have no clear evidence or reason to believe that it comes from another site.

References

Lanigan Wood, H. 2004 Early stone figures in County Fermanagh. In E. Murphy and W. Roulston (eds), Fermanagh History and Society, 33-56. Dublin. Geography Publications

Warner, R. 2003 Two pagan idols: remarkable new discoveries. Archaeology Ireland, 17(1), 24-27.

NIEA, Waterman House, 5-33 Hill Street, Belfast, BT1 2LA and Emily Murray, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork (CAF), School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT9 1NN