Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo: Report 2011

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about 6m by 4m incorporating a number of large stone slabs. Eleven house sites are associated with the fields. The field system with a total length of 4.7kms of walls is mainly rectilinear with a dominant N – S alignment and walls mostly 130m to 150m apart. Field size varies from 3 ha for that incorporating Ma107 to 1.4 ha for the field west of that. The southern boundary of these two fields is formed by a wall that runs in a sinuous Southwest to Northeast direction for about 500m and the turns sharply northwards. From the Southwest it runs into the South end of the tomb cairn and continues from midway on the East of the cairn. The staggered nature of the junction of this wall with the N – S wall west of the tomb suggests the latter was built subsequently to the sinuous wall. The Rathlackan tomb has a D-shaped enclosure wall, 20m by 20m, attached to the N side of the cairn, in which there was a small square house H13 (Figure 10). Just 200m to the east another small 3m diameter round house, Beltra H16 (Figure 18), is within a curvilinear enclosure 70m by 40m at the end of a field wall. Further to the North at site D a curvilinear wall may have been a complete enclosure as a modern road runs along the west side. Incorporated into this wall are two orthostatic jambs, 0.9m to 1.0m apart and 1.25m high from the sub peat ground level, support a large lintel stone 2.2m by 1.0m and up to 0.3m thick. This is referred to as ‘Queen’s Grave’ by Aldridge (1961, 86). It is clearly part of the wall making an elaborate entrance although there are a lot of stones around the structure covered by peat, giving the possibility it may have been part of some other structure. Seefin ‘Seefin’ hill includes parts of Carrowkibbock Upper, Rathoonagh, Ballinglen, Aghaleague, Carrowcuilleen and Annaghmore townlands (Figure 4). It is a steep sided flat topped hill 237m high. The very steep west slopes are mostly peat free or have been reclaimed as are the lower slopes on the east side while the less steep northern spur has mostly cutaway peat. Elsewhere there are large tracts of uncut peat on much of the ridge top while the East and South sides are a chequer board of old turf banks often over 2m high. A total length of 5.6kms of walls were located on all areas of the hill (Figure 4) but a more extensive probing operation would undoubtedly reveal a more complete pattern in areas of deep peat. On the N slope there are two broadly parallel meandering walls, varying from 100m to 200m apart, running upslope with some offset cross walls. On the S end a straight wall almost 700m long, but with a gap in the middle where it has not been probed, maintains a straight course regardless of topography, the S section running up the steep slope and the N end following the contour. On either side of this two straight offset cross walls, all between 110m to 150m long, may indicate a more regular pattern of walls. Elsewhere the walls do not have a distinct pattern but many continue under uncut peat and have not been probed further. No major area of the hill is devoid of walls and the general indication is of larger rather than small fields. A circular enclosure 40m d. is located on a fairly level terrace at a height of 150m on the N hillside. 420m upslope from it at a height of 185m a house site, Carrowkibbock Upper H20 (Figure 19), is attached to the end of a field wall. There are two court tombs on the hill, Carrowkibbock Upper Ma108 on the N side and Ballinglen Ma121 at the end of a field wall on the South slope. 146
Two similar large round cairns are interestingly located on the ridge top 700m apart but not intervisible. Aghaleague, 3.7m high and 19m d. has spectacular views from the Northeast to the South but slightly rising ground restricts the view elsewhere. Carrowcuilleen Site B, 3m high and 20m d., has views from the Southeast around to the Northwest. Barnhill A total of 1.4kms of walls were located in Barnhill and Aghaleague in shallow cutaway peat (Figure 5). A regular system of N – S parallels mostly about 150m apart with some E – W cross walls is indicated on Barnhill. The extent of the system is limited by reclamation on the South and East sides, including around Barnhill Upper court tomb Ma27. To the N the land dips down to a basin of deep peat in Lissadrone but the walls could not be traced any further under the deeper peat. To the W a single wall runs upslope from NE to SW towards the largely destroyed Aghaleague court tomb Ma26 although on opposite sides of the low hill. Occasional isolated upright stones in the vicinity may be remnants of walls. Castletown The Castletown system has a total length of 1.5kms of walls in Castletown, Cabintown and Ballymachugh in mostly shallow cutaway peat although there are some uncut banks up to 1.5m high. At least two separate phases of boundaries are evident (Figure 6), the primary system built on mineral soil and the later on a thin layer of peat. The earlier system has three parallel walls running NW – SE from the shore, averaging 175m apart with two cross walls forming fields, partly bounded by the coast, of 1.5ha and 2.2ha. Short walls adjacent to both H2 and Site A are also on mineral soil. The large 9.5m d. Ballymachugh round house H2 is on mineral soil (Figure 9) and probably also the 8.5m d. Castletown round house H1. A curving generally N – S wall cuts across one of the parallels and cross walls and is built on a thin layer of peat. To the west of H1 a slightly curving N – S wall with a semicircular incomplete enclosure, 15m by 20m, at the N end is also on peat. A curving 60m long earthen bank and ditch partly extends across the open end of the enclosure but the stratigraphical relationship is not clear. The 3m wide by 0.5m high bank is on the E side of the 1.1m wide by 0.5m deep ditch. A 50m length of earthen bank 1m wide and 0.5m high S of Cabintown Site A had no apparent ditch but it is not clear which phase it belongs to. The Cabintown site A (Figure 8) consists of twenty six large erratic boulders set upright in an incomplete 32m wide sub triangular shape, which vary in height from 0.32m to 1.01m. Knockaun A total length of 350m of walls consists of a curving wall extending away from the cliff edge with two short offset walls 90m apart. They are under very shallow peat with no associated monuments, the nearest being a pair of barrows 500m to the NW. 147
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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes
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Table of Contents Introduction ....
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Scientific Research associated with
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Introduction This report reviews th
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- A summary of the radiocarbon dati
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Creating Digital Archaeological Lan
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Figure 2: Data Model for NBNM GIS R
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Figure 4: example of outputs at Cé
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Rathlackan As a result of a lack of
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Radiocarbon Dating A further tranch
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RATHLACKAN Lab Number F no S. No Co
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GLENULRA ENCLOSURE Notes Cal BC (95
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Lab Code Cutting Sample Material AR
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Charcoal analysis from Neolithic an
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Results Overall charcoal 83 samples
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Glenulra Scatter 92E140 Middle Neol
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Oak and birch were recorded from Cu
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35 30 no of samples 25 20 15 10 5 0
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Area A A long length of Neolithic f
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piece was 17 years old when cut, ba
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elating to midden B2P and from five
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1% 6% Corylus 1% 14% 25% 0% 2% 4% 4
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posts burnt in situ. Rather the pos
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When the charcoal is examined throu
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at Glenulra scatter. Alder was iden
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een freely available in the area. T
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References Byrne, G., Warren, G., W
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Verrill, L. and Tipping, R. 2010. U
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Table 3 Charcoal identifications fr
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Sample Date Ctg Context Description
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Sample Date Ctg Context Description
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Sample Trench Time period Descripti
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Table 7 Wood identification details
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Table 8 Charcoal identifications fr
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Cutting Sample Date Feature Descrip
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Table 8 Sample assessment Rathlacka
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Phase F. S. Trench Deposit type Loc
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Behy-Glenulra: Céide Fields visito
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A possible midden (B2P) contained a
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Wild remains Hazelnut shell fragmen
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References Beijerinck, W. 1947. Zad
Page 101 and 102: Verrill, L. and Tipping, R. 2010. A
Page 103 and 104: Soils and Geology Graeme Warren Thi
Page 105 and 106: Figure 3: overview of geological fe
Page 107 and 108: distinctive deposits and landscape
Page 109 and 110: Figure 4: major landuse categories.
Page 111 and 112: References ?? Soil Map of West Mayo
Page 113 and 114: The first scientific paper on late
Page 115 and 116: Also in the summer of 1963, fifty k
Page 117 and 118: the earth for the bank coming from
Page 119 and 120: dates from the macrofossil remains
Page 121 and 122: New Research and Researchers Over t
Page 123 and 124: Probed Surveys: Erris, Céide Field
Page 125 and 126: Iron probes of varying lengths had
Page 127 and 128: Céide hill twenty five years earli
Page 129 and 130: Survey on the Glenamoy - Bartnatra
Page 131 and 132: Bungurra River drains the Knocknalo
Page 133 and 134: The elevation of the tombs, all sit
Page 135 and 136: In 1936, 2 sub-rectangular cists, C
Page 137 and 138: Dooncarton Southwest slope 3.15 km
Page 139 and 140: The cross-section area occupied by
Page 141 and 142: No upper boundary was located on Kn
Page 143 and 144: The third house site, H3, on Gortme
Page 145 and 146: The 2 court tombs, Ma38 and Ma23, l
Page 147 and 148: This void is substantiated by exami
Page 149 and 150: Survey from Ballinglen to Rathfran
Page 151: Lissadrone basin. The peat cover is
Page 155 and 156: Wall Gaps Because of concealment an
Page 157 and 158: supported by an orthostat visible u
Page 159 and 160: and with different building techniq
Page 161 and 162: Survey Illustrations: Figure 1: Ove
Page 163 and 164: Figure 4: Seefin walls with associa
Page 165 and 166: Figure 7: Walls from the study area
Page 167 and 168: Figure 8: Cabintown Site A. 161
Page 169 and 170: Figure 11: Rathlackan sites H12 Fig
Page 171 and 172: Figure 15: Creevagh H5, Figure 16:
Page 173: Figure 19: Carrowkibbock Upper H20.
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Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscapes of North Mayo: Report 2011

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