Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo: Report 2011

Also in the summer of 1963, fifty kilometres to the south of Behy, at Carrownaglogh near
Bonnyconlon at the foot of the Ox Mountains, a local postman, Tommy Togher had noted a sizeable
stone wall where he had cut his turf. He discovered a very large flint scraper in the wall and sent it
to the National Museum. Peter Danagher, then assistant keeper in the National Museum visited the
site and from there continued on to visit the Behy excavation. Herity, close friend and colleague of
Peter Danagher returned with him to Carrownaglogh where he met with Tommy Togher and saw the
pre-bog walls.
Visitors to the excavations at the Behy tomb accustomed to walking over cutaway bog and
interested in what the pre-bog surface revealed had observed the walls at various locations
between the road and the tomb 400 metres upslope into the bog. De Valéra and Ó Nualláin’s single
minded focus on the megalithic tomb saw the wall on the collapsed cairn as obviously
stratigraphically later and separated possibly by millennia from their focus of study. Herity was
particularly interested in investigating further the Behy stone wall but the other directors of the
excavation were not supportive of the idea. It was recognised during that summer from the Behy,
Belderrig and Carrownaglogh discoveries that pre-bog walls were a more widespread
phenomenon than previously thought. In 1967 Herity proposed that he and the writer should
undertake a study of the phenomenon.
In 1969 a programme of excavation of the pre-bog walls commenced at two locations, Herity at
Carrownaglogh and the writer on the walls in the vicinity of the Behy tomb. Archaeological
excavations in the North Mayo area were well established by this stage. Ó Nualláin had excavated
the small Ballyglass tomb(Mayo 14) in 1967 and was into his second season at the large Ballyglass
(Mayo 13). During the excavation of the walls in 1969, a reconnoitre of the cutaway bog with Patrick
Caulfield led to the identification of partly exposed enclosures in the cutaway bog. In 1970 it was
decided to excavate one of these enclosures sited about 300 metres to the east of the Behy tomb
just across the townland boundary in Glenulra townland. It was already obvious from the recce of
Céide hill that the field walls were much more extensive than had been thought, creating the
problem of where to identify within the fields, potential concentrations of human activity which
could lead to artifact or other critically diagnostic phenomena. The confines of an enclosure - for
whatever purpose – offered the best opportunity. The western half of the enclosure was excavated
in the summer of 1970. No internal structure was observed but some flint artifacts and a polished
chip of stone identified as probably from a stone axe were recovered. In the same season five
kilometres to the east, Ó Nualláin’s third season of excavation at Ballyglass had discovered the
foundation trenches of a large house which underlay and therefore predated the tomb(Ó Nualláin
19xx). The discovery of the Ballyglass house was very important at the time. It was the most
substantial Neolithic house known from Britain or Ireland and only a handful of houses of the period
were known. In Ireland the only parallels known were Knockadoon on Lough Gur and Ballinagilly in
Co. Tyrone. It was also the only polycameral house identified in these islands. The discovery gave
rise to considerable interest among the general public. An open day held on the 15 August 1970
attracted a crowd of over one thousand from throughout the county and further afield despite a
deluge and severe flooding.
In 1971, Herity’s second season of excavation led to the discovery of cultivation ridges on the prebog
surface, the prime breakthrough that had been hoped for of being able to identify the purpose
of the fields. Again the discovery caused widespread interest..
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