2022:762 - Derryboy, Derrycalliff, Crusheen, Clare

Archaeological excavation was undertaken at a derelict stone-built house in the abandoned village of Derryboy, near Ballinruan, Crusheen, as part of a community archaeology project in association with Clare County Council, Clare Museum and Clare County Archives.

These works were undertaken as part of The Creative Ireland Programme (2017-22), a national culture-based programme designed to promote individual, community and national well-being. Clare Museum and Clare County Archives headed up the project to engage with the wider Clare community and the Irish diaspora, for whom the famine is a key event in the heritage of many.

As part of this initiative, a famine village was identified as the target of the project and, over two separate periods of works, targeted excavations were conducted to shed light on life in mid-19th-century Clare. Excavation was led by professional archaeologists and assisted by local volunteers from the community. The fieldwork took place in November 2019 and, following a hiatus in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in June 2022.

Vegetation was removed from the building and its immediate environs. The inside of the building was hand-cleaned. The spoil was visually scanned for finds, and a metal detector was used to enhance recovery of metal objects.

The excavation revealed evidence of occupation deposits, domestic refuse and perhaps evidence of a collapsed turf roof within the 13m² stone house, which was likely built in the later 18^th or earlier 19^th century, and probably abandoned in the mid-19^th century. Artefacts discovered include domestic pottery, an 1846 silver coin, iron objects, leather shoes, animal bone, clay tobacco pipe fragments and bottle glass.

The structural information and artefacts recovered provide a fascinating insight into the lives of the rural population of County Clare in the middle of the 19th century.

TVAS (Ireland) Ltd Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare