EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Westmeath
Togherstown, Co. Westmeath
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure
Grid reference: N29514986 (229517/249864)
SMR No: WM024-028
Excavation Licence No: N/A
Excavation duration/year: August-September 1929; March-April 1930.
Site directors: R.A.S. Macalister & R.L. Praeger (University College, Dublin).
The site consists of a central area, raised approximately 1.5m above the ground surface, with
two concentric rings of banks and ditches (Fig. 299). Excavations on the outer ditch revealed
a layer of stones at the base of the ditch. The outer face of the outer bank has a revetment
of stones, but this appears to have been added after the outer ditch had been filled. A
number of enigmatic structural features were located in the intervening space between the
outer and inner bank-and-ditch. The inner ditch is a maximum of 1.8m deep and the outer
face of the inner bank also appears to have had a stone revetment. The interior of the site
was subdivided by cross-walls. A large fire pit – approximately 2.1m in diameter, with up to
0.6m depth of ash – was located in one of these courts. Un-burnt bone was associated with
this layer of ash. A series of postholes presumably marks the location of a house and this
appears to have been associated with access to one of the souterrains on site. This souterrain
– the ‘Greater Souterrain’ – consisted of a number of chambers and creeps. An Anglo-Saxon
saucer brooch was found in one of the chambers. No finds are recorded for the ‘Lesser
Souterrain’. The upper stone of a rotary quern was found on site, as was a socket-stone for a
wooden door upright. Fragments of a bone comb and button were also found on site. As well
as the saucer brooch, a bronze pin was recovered from the fill of the inner ditch; seven iron
knife blades and an iron sickle were also found on site.
Fig. 299: Plan of Togherstown, Co. Westmeath (after Macalister & Praeger 1931-2).
Reference:
Macalister, R. A. S. & Praeger, R. L. 1931-2. The excavation of an ancient structure on the townland
of Togherstown, Co. Westmeath. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Section C, 40C, 54–83.
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