2020:598 - Toghar, Portlaoise, Laois

Licenced archaeological monitoring and excavation was carried out at Togher, Portlaoise, Co. Laois in compliance with the conditions of Laois County Council - planning ref. no. 18/216, and An Bord Pleanála Board Order ABP-303040-18.

Monitoring commenced in October 2019, with topsoil stripping quickly exposing a circular enclosure ditch. On-going archaeological monitoring was carried out in tandem with full archaeological resolution of the enclosure ditch, and a number of pits, post-holes, stake-holes, hearths and a possible kiln were subsequently exposed inside and outside the perimeter of the enclosure.

The excavated site comprised a circular enclosure, 60m in diameter east-west, with a number of post-holes, pits, hearths and other features both inside and outside the enclosing ditch. Extensive truncation had occurred, mainly owing to agriculture, and no trace of a bank was found. The ditch itself was found under 0.3-0.4m of topsoil. The northern part of the enclosure was outside the development site footprint and was not excavated. An entrance was found on the south side of the ditch. This was not a gap in the ditch but a shallow area, with two large post-holes, which may have held supports for a bridge.

The nature and dating of the site is not clear. It could be a ringfort, but its size is at the upper end of the range. The southern entrance would be typical of a ringfort, but would generally be in the form of a gap in the ditch. The distribution of earthen ringforts in the vicinity of Togher is not particularly dense, and the diameters of many are in the 20-45m range. However, three ringforts, including two to the east of Portlaoise town (LA013-045, LA013-046) and the Clonaddadoran example (LA018-015) to the south of the site measure in the 60m-70m range. Morphologically, the Togher enclosure would seem to fit into the same category as these, but, as they have not been excavated, nothing further is known about them.

A bronze ring pin found in the ditch fill is of the type classified by Fanning (1994) as plain-ringed, looped; they were quite common in Viking-age Dublin and were found in 10th-11th-century levels. As it was found at the top of the ditch fill, it was deposited at a time when not only had the enclosure gone out of use, but the ditch had filled up, possibly completely. If the site is a ringfort, the pin is likely to have reached its present position relatively late, given that the survival rate of ringforts was quite high until the 19th century. Part of another pin, an iron sickle, a whetstone and a worked stone object of unknown function have been dated to the medieval period and may be contemporary with the pin. The remainder of the finds, which included ceramics, glass, clay-pipes, and various metal items, were of mid 17th-20th-century date.

A large amount of animal bone was recovered during excavation; most of the animal bone remains found at the site were from contexts of possible early medieval date. The results of analysis showed the assemblage to be characterised overwhelmingly by domestic species, in particular cattle, and the presence of butchery marks on a high proportion of the bones indicates that the material comes from food production and consumption. While cattle comprised the majority of the identified animal bones, horse, sheep/goat, pig and dog were also represented.

Charred plant remains were found in 23 samples collected during excavation of the site. These came from the fills of ditches, a kiln, hearths, pits and some spreads/deposits. They were identified as arable weeds, cereal grains and hazelnut shell fragments. The cereals were primarily oat, with some barley, wheat and small quantities of rye also found. The assemblage appears typical of charred assemblages from the medieval period.

Reference:
Fanning, Thomas 1994 Viking Age Ring Pins from Dublin (Medieval Dublin Excavations, 1962-81: Series B)

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