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2010 Dig Results

Everyone hard at work on the 2010 Dig

In 2010 the School excavated the entrance to the cashel, revealing a path inside a medieval entrance. Finds included adecorated bone comb, musket shot and a peg from a harp! The medieval entrance comprised two sets of double doors within the entrance passage, each marked by a stone sill and a pair of spud-stones (pivot stones/sockets). The inner sill is of better quality cut stone, with two well-cut and dressed ‘door stop’ stones inside the door position. Shallow niches in the cashel wall, in line with the outer sill, supported vertical jamb stones. Three of the four jambs were located. These are also cut and dressed stones. The dressing suggests a medieval date. This entrance was not the original one, and was probably constructed around the 15^th or 16^th century when a rectangular house was built inside the cashel.

Inside the cashel a slab-paved path was found leading to/from the entrance, lining up roughly (though not exactly) with the northern half of the entrance. The inexact alignment of the path with the medieval entrance might suggest that the path is earlier in date. A paved surface was uncovered to the north of the path, and an irregular stony surface to the south. Medieval remains were found above these levels, earlier material below.

This earlier material represents the primary activity within the cashel, probably dating from the 10^th to 12^th century AD. The original entrance from this date was completely remodelled in the 15^th/16^th century, however excavations did uncover one trace of it – a single post-hole (that would have held a large gate-post).