2013:010 - Caherconnell, Clare

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Clare Site name: Caherconnell

Sites and Monuments Record No.: CL009-03010 Licence number: 10E0087

Author: Michelle Comber

Site type: Cashel

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 523589m, N 699521m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.040885, -9.139431

Caherconnell cashel is the largest of four drystone enclosures in the townland of the same name, in the Burren, Co. Clare. The cashel is circular with a diameter of 42m. It is defined by drystone walls standing 3m in basal width and 3m in height (though they were probably originally higher). Its entrance, like that of most ringforts, faces east.

Today, the interior of the cashel is, on average, 0.75m above external ground level. A small number of features protrude above the modern grassy surface. These include a collapsed dry stone wall that divides the interior in two, the lower courses of an irregular-shaped stone structure built up against the inner face of the cashel on the west (Structure B), and the lower stone courses of a rectangular structure built inside the cashel wall on the north (Structure A). An international field school has been established to undertake research excavation of the cashel.

The 2013 Caherconnell Archaeological Field School excavations concentrated on an area just inside the north-eastern sector of the cashel, immediately west of the 2010 cutting (Cutting A)?. This work identified several phases of activity, some associated with deliberately laid slab surfaces and pathways. Artefacts were numerous this season, including iron pins, tools, knives, nails, arrowheads, buckles, bronze pins, buckle, stud, bone combs, needles, pins, gaming piece, beads, whetstones, lithics, stone axe fragment, lignite bracelet fragments and rotary querns.

Identifying and dating the various phases of activity at Caherconnell cashel is an ongoing study, with every new radiocarbon date facilitating refinement of the chronological story. The dates obtained so far suggest the following:

PHASE 1: A small mound covering two cists (containing the remains of two juveniles and a woman 45+) was discovered in 2013. The cashel wall had been built over the top of it, with half of the mound inside the cashel interior, the other half beneath the cashel wall. Radiocarbon dates awaited. May be contemporary with fire-pit (below), or earlier.

PHASE 2: A fire-pit quarried into the bedrock, discovered in 2011?, produced a 7th-century AD date. This probably represents pre-cashel activity.

PHASE 3: This phase is marked by the levelling off of the uneven ground surface and the construction of Caherconnell cashel. The walls were largely built directly on bedrock. Radiocarbon dates suggest a 10th-11th-century date for this phase.

PHASE 4: Early occupation of the cashel, marked by a habitation layer and post settings. Radiocarbon dates suggest a 10th-11th-century date for this phase.

PHASE 5: Middle occupation of the cashel. A slab surface was laid down inside the cashel and occupation material accumulated on top of this. Radiocarbon dates suggest a 10th-11th-century date for this phase. A stone setting for a post, two burnt deposits, a length of wall base and two paths were uncovered as part of this surface in 2013.

PHASE 6: Late occupation of the cashel. Phase 6 saw the laying of a new slab surface, and the build up of occupation material on top of it. 2013 features include a hearth and path. Dates suggest 11th-14th century AD.

PHASE 7: This phase was the final phase of occupation within the cashel. A new entrance was inserted, and a rectangular house built inside the north wall of the cashel (Structure A). It dates to the 15th-16th century, possibly into the start of the 17th.

PHASE 8: The final phase of activity includes post-occupation use of the cashel as an animal pen, collapse of structures and tumble of stone from parts of the cashel wall. It dates from the 17th century to early 20th century.

 

Caherconnell Archaeological Field School students, 2013.

 

 

Beads and fragments, 10E087, 2013.

Archaeology, School of Geography and Archaeology, NUI, Galway. , Co. Clare