County: Cork Site name: LISNACAHERAGH, GARRANES
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO084-084 Licence number: 17E0164
Author: William O'Brien
Site type: Ringfort
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 547309m, N 564079m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.826465, -8.764409
Excavation was conducted in May 2017 at the well-known early medieval ringfort of Lisnacaheragh, Garranes, Co. Cork. This impressive trivallate ringfort has long been identified as the minor royal site of Rath Raithleann, the seat of a branch of the ruling Eóganacht dynasty who dominated the political landscape of south Munster in the 6th-8th centuries AD. The current project was undertaken as part of long-term research into the Garranes ringfort landscape, which in previous years had focused on the adjacent Lisnamanroe enclosure. The Lisnacaheragh ringfort was first excavated in 1937, uncovering evidence of a high-status settlement with specialised craft working dating to the fifth and sixth centuries AD (Ó Ríordáin 1942). A subsequent excavation in 1990-2 was only partially completed, but did produce the first series of radiocarbon dates for the early ringfort occupation (Cleary 2009).
The 2017 excavation completed the investigation of one of the 1990-2 trenches, revealing the full extent of a roundhouse structure identified at that time. A further series of radiocarbon dates place that structure in the late fifth/early sixth centuries AD. The excavation also uncovered part of a 'black layer' first excavated in 1937 on the inside of the inner enclosure bank. This deposit contained a large number of finds connected to bronze casting, glass production and other specialised crafts. Similar finds of metallurgical crucibles, bronze waste and slag were made in the 2017 excavation, along with a number of sherds of imported pottery from the late Roman world. The excavation also revealed the extent of damage caused to the early occupation surface inside the ringfort by lazy-bed cultivation during the early modern era.
References:
Cleary, R.M. 2009. Excavations at Lisnacaheragh, Garranes, Co. Cork, 1991–2. Unpublished report on excavations by Mary O’Donnell (licence E629), sent to National Monuments Service, and National Museum of Ireland.
Ó Ríordáin, S.P. 1942. The excavation of a large earthen ringfort at Garranes, Co. Cork. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 48, 77–150.
Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
