County: Roscommon Site name: CLS106, Caul, Cloonshannagh Bog
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 14E0263
Author: Tim Coughlan
Site type: Platform
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 602877m, N 780936m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.777998, -7.956351
Cloonshannagh Bog is located 3km north-west of Termonbarry and 2.5km west of Lough Forbes. The bog is part of the Bord na Móna Mountdillon Group and has a total area of 331 hectares. A survey by ADS in 2008 under licence 08E0645 identified a total of 88 sites. Upon re-assessment by ADS in 2013 under licence 13E0221 89 sites were recorded. Of the 89 sightings, 60 were platform sightings, 18 sightings were of archaeological wood and 11 were trackway sightings, all of varying lengths and widths. Of these 35 sites were listed for excavation as part of the current contract.
At CLS106 a single cutting measuring 1m x 6m in size was excavated along the drain edge where this site was recorded in section 0.46m below the field surface 2.6m north of site CLS105 (licence 14E0263).
During the excavation of the overlying peat two isolated brushwood elements were uncovered 0.2m below the field surface. The peat was poorly decomposed (H2-) sphagnum peat with moderate calluna and eriophorum inclusions. The brushwood elements were oriented north-north-east and north-westsouth-east. They were overlying one another, both were 0.05m in diameter and were 0.1m and 0.11m in length.
There was a further c. 0.26m of peat between these elements and the site recorded as CLS106. This peat was similar in composition to the peat below the site and was moderately humified (H2+) with frequent patches of calluna and eriophorum throughout.
The excavated site was composed of a haphazard arrangement of 13 brushwood and roundwood elements with no apparent form or construction contained within an area measuring 0.65 x 3.3m. The elements ranged in diameter from 0.03–0.08m in diameter and 0.3–0.8m in length. Seven of the elements had worked ends all of which were chisel points with flat faceted toolmarks that ranged in size from 5–38mm in width and 0.06–0.5m in length cut at 20°–45° angles. As this site appears to have been truncated by the Bord na Móna drain it may originally have formed part of a small platform.
A fragment of ash, 15 yrs, was chosen for AMS dating from samples taken from the 2013 ADS survey and returned a result of 359–174 BC.
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