County: Roscommon Site name: Cuilrevagh 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E005152
Author: Siobhan McNamara and Ros Ó Maoldúin
Site type: Bowl furnaces, spreads, pits and ring-ditch
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 592099m, N 784766m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.812363, -8.119969
Cuilrevagh 1 was excavated in advance of construction of the N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge Road Project in County Roscommon by Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS) for Roscommon County Council (RCC) and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). The site was first identified during Stage (i) Geophysical Survey (Nicholls 2019, 41) and confirmed through test excavation (Hardy 2021).
The archaeological remains were located in two areas, A and B, approximately 150m apart. In Area A there was metalworking evidence dated to the early medieval period and in Area B there was a ring-ditch and metalworking evidence dated to the Middle Iron Age.
The remains in Area A comprised a smelting furnace base, two additional pits, three spreads containing metalworking waste, a stakehole and a tree bole. There was some scorching in the base of the tree bole and its fill also contained metalworking slag. Since it appears that the tree bole was open during the metalworking, it seems likely that shelter provided by the roots of a collapsed tree was utilised to provide partial cover for the furnace. A date from the furnace places this activity between the late ninth and early eleventh century (AD 893–1014; @ 2 Sigma; UBA-48798; 1091+20BP).
The remains in Area B comprised an annular ring-ditch, two smelting furnaces and a smithing furnace. Two radiocarbon dates were returned for the ring-ditch, 197–50 cal. BC (@ 2 Sigma; UBA-48797; 2114+22BP) on fruitwood charcoal from the basal fill, and 339–53 cal. BC (@2 Sigma; UBA-48795; 2123+20BP) on hazel charcoal from the second phase. One date was returned from one of the furnaces, 343–53 cal. BC (@ 2 Sigma; UBA-48796; 2132+21BP), suggesting it was in use at the same time as the ring-ditch. The ring-ditch was 5.2–5.5m in diameter and was the focus of deposition in two distinct phases. A small amount of cremated human bone and metalworking slag were found in the fill of the initial cut. The fill of the re-cut contained a larger amount of cremated human bone, 59 beads (56 glass beads and two possible faience beads), seven tuyère fragments, three copper-alloy object ring fragments, a possible crucible fragment, a possible axe resharpening flake and more metalworking debris. None of the bone from the first phase was identifiable to age or sex. The bone from the second phase was all consistent with an adolescent or adult, but a slight variation noted in the robustness of some bone suggests that remains from at least two people were included. The majority of the metalworking waste appears to have been from smelting and it seems that bloom may have made as part of or in association with the funerary rites.
This final report summary was submitted on behalf of its authors.
References
Hardy, C. 2021. N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge Road Project Stage (i)a, (i)b, (i)c Test Excavation, Stage (i)m Testing in Felled Forestry and Stage (i)f Townland Boundary Survey. Ministerial Direction No. A077, Registration No. E5070. Unpublished AMS report for TII and RCC.
Nicholls, J. 2019. Geophysical Survey Report, N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramoge Road Project, Co. Roscommon. Unpublished report prepared by Target Archaeological Geophysics Ltd on behalf of Archaeological Management Solutions.
Cuilrevagh 1: glass beads and copper-alloy ring fragments from ring-ditch C.31.
Cuilrevagh 1: post-excavation view of bowl furnace C.8 with hard cake C.22 visible, from NNE.
Cuilrevagh 1: aerial view of ring-ditch C31.
Fahy’s Road, Kilrush, Co. Clare
