EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Galway
Doonloughan, Co. Galway
Early Medieval Coastal Settlement.
Grid Ref: L580459 (05800/24590)
SMR No: N/A.
Excavation Licence: 97E0197
Excavation Duration/Year: 1997.
Site Director: F. McCormick & E. Murray (Queen’s University, Belfast)
The sites at Doonloughan were identified while sampling midden sites for marine shells, and
are part of a larger number of sites located in the sand dunes around the False Bay area.
Most of these sites were discovered because artefacts (bronze pins, sheet bronze and bronze
wire, and chert arrowheads), animal bones and miscellaneous burials had been exposed by
erosion.
Two trenches were excavated at Doonloughan Site 3. In Trench 1, an area of burning was
uncovered, and charcoal from this was radiocarbon dated to the late-eighth/early-ninth
century (see below). The remains of four stakes, and the possible remains of a fifth, were
also discovered. The burning extended into Trench 2, where a small pit was discovered. Finds
from this site consisted of a plain bronze penannular brooch, a small piece of worked antler,
and an iron knife blade.
A further two trenches were excavated at Doonloughan Site 11. These uncovered the lower
stone courses of a house of sub-circular shape (4.4m in diameter), and it is suggested that
these stones may have acted as anchors for a wicker-walled structure (Fig. 140). The
structure had a central stone-lined hearth and an east-facing entrance marked by two upright
stones. A shell midden, composed of periwinkles and limpets, was found against an exterior
wall. Shells of dogwhelks (Nucella lapillus), from which purple dye may have been extracted,
were also found in these sites. Artefacts from this site consisted of two glass beads and a flint
core.
Given the coastal location of the site it is not surprising that a relatively large quantity of fish
bones, and a small quantity of mammal bones, were recovered from the site.
Fig. 140: Plan of house at Doonloughan, Co. Galway (after Murray et al. forthcoming).
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