EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Down
Tullylish, Co. Down
Early Medieval Ecclesiastical Enclosure.
Grid Ref: J08274858 (30827/34858)
SMR No: DOW 026:005
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: May 1983.
Site Director: R.J. Ivens (Historic Monuments Branch, Department of Finance (NI)).
Excavation was undertaken on a hill-top enclosure beside the local parish church prior to the
construction of a new church hall. The remains of a seventeenth century church were
upstanding within the sub-circular enclosure, and subsequent excavation revealed that the
site had been occupied for over a millennium before this.
Apart from some earlier Bronze Age finds, the primary phase of occupation on site was
marked by the construction of a massive ditch (5m wide, and up to 4m deep). The ditch
appears then to have been re-cut on a number of occasions, but also to have been allowed to
naturally silt-up. During one of these latter phases there is some limited occupation evidence
(charcoal and bone fragments) and also some enigmatic structural evidence – two sets of
stakeholes were discovered set into this layer within the ditch and were interpreted as some
form of flimsy temporary structure, perhaps a wind-break.
At a later date a second, external ditch was cut, and an internal bank made from the spoil.
The primary ditch was remodelled and used as an industrial area – a kiln with three flues; a
furnace bottom; and a cooking hearth were all found in this area. There were also structural
remains in the vicinity of the in-filled ditch, including stone-packed post-holes representative
of a substantial timber building, as well as rather more ephemeral wooden structures –
possibly wind-breaks.
Almost 3,500 sherds of pottery were found on site, the vast majority of which (3,279) was
found in the fill of the outer ditch. The pottery was dominated by coarse-wares (souterrain
ware (678) and crannog ware) but there were also some wheel-thrown sherds, possibly
dating to the thirteenth/fourteenth centuries. There was substantial evidence of industrial
activity including the remains of seven clay crucibles, fragments of 26 clay moulds, and
substantial quantities of slag and tuyère fragments. A large number of copper-alloy objects
were also found on site which may either indicate their manufacture there, or attest to the
relative high status of the monastic site recorded in A.U. 809.
(No plans were available for this site).
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