EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Down
‘Clea Lakes’ (Tullyveery td.), Co. Down
Early Medieval Crannog.
Grid Ref: J50995494 (25099/35494)
SMR No: DOW 024:021
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: June 1956.
Site Director: A.E.P. Collins (Ancients Monuments Branch, Ministry of Finance) & V.B.
Proudfoot (Queen’s University Belfast).
The early medieval crannog of Clea Lakes, Co. Down, was excavated in June 1956 as part of the
County Down Archaeological Survey research programme (Fig. 91). The crannog had already been
excavated in the nineteenth century, when finds including bronze pins, a stone disc and both early
medieval souterrain ware and medieval coarse ware were found. Pat Collins and Bruce Proudfoot’s
excavations were limited to a narrow trench into the occupation deposits and down to the lower
surface. The crannog was located in a small lake lying in the drumlins to the west of Strangford
Lough, two km north-west of the coastal town of Killyleagh, Co. Down.
The site was artificially constructed by depositing sub-soil, freshly quarried rock-chips and a thin layer
of peat over the natural boulder clay. This was covered by a layer of occupation debris or topsoil, a
peaty sealing layer, overlain by a 1m-thick deposit of midden material. It was suggested that this
midden material had been transported there from another settlement site in the vicinity. The
occupation surface was enclosed within a wall built in the manner of an early medieval stone cashel,
although this may also have been a stone revetment, 0.8m in height. The occupation surface was
within a brown loamy and stony layer, within which there was a built hearth with ashy material
around it, all overlaid by sand and clay. The uppermost surface of the crannog was enclosed by a
stone wall in the manner of a cashel.
Most of the finds were from the pre-occupation, sub-structural midden deposit, though some were
from the sandy deposit above this. These were all of early medieval date. They included 61 sherds of
souterrain ware, two crucibles used for bronze working as indicated by the reddish staining of bronze
dross, a bronze sheet fragment, an iron-socketed gouge (possible used in wood-turning), three bone
pins (from pig fibulae), a glass bead, a lignite bracelet, a piece of rotary quern, a perforated stone
loom weight, two spindle whorls, slate discs, nine whetstones, 36 pieces of flint with steep edgebruising
used as strike-a-lights, (as well as a Neolithic thumbnail scraper and Late Mesolithic Bann
flakes), a tracked stone and a stone pebble used as a ‘linen polisher’. Previous or ‘old’ finds from the
site included souterrain ware, a stone disc, a bronze pin and a bone pin.
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