EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Mayo
Letterkeen, Co. Mayo
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Ref: F98140759 (098145/307594)
SMR No: MA046-004007
Excavation Licence: N/A
Excavation Duration/Year: 1950?
Site Director: S.P. Ó Ríordáin (University College, Cork).
The site is an enclosure with an internal diameter of 26m surrounded by a bank-and-ditch,
with a low external bank beyond the ditch (possibly a bivallate or a counterscarp enclosure)
(Fig. 221). The maximum ditch width was 4m and the maximum bank height was 4.5m. In
1935 two Bronze Age ‘food vessels’ were found on site, which resulted in a number of pits
being dug in the interior in search of ‘treasure’. The largest hole in the interior, however,
resulted from the removal of the souterrain from site, presumably in the nineteenth or
twentieth century.
Excavation revealed that the inner face of the inner bank was supported by a stone
revetment, and that, on either side of the entrance, a similar stone structure formed the core
of the bank (Fig. 222). The low outer bank appears to have included a palisade trench on the
outer lip of the ditch. The fence associated with this trench appears not only to have
surrounded the site, but also to have framed both sides of the entrance causeway over the
ditch and to have ended at the gated entrance into the interior of the enclosure. A series of
gate-posts were identified during excavation, suggesting that the gate must have been
replaced on a number of occasions. The interconnection between entranceway, ditch,
causeway, and palisade trench suggests that they were all contemporary. The souterrain was
probably a later addition to the site since it was built into part of the inner bank. Postholes in
the floor of the souterrain and grooves in the walls indicate that structural timbers were
employed to support the roof, which may also have been of timber.
A timber-posted roundhouse (5.2m in diameter) was located in the interior, which appears to
have been linked to the souterrain by a stone pavement. An area of intensive burning just
beyond the western wall of this structure appears to have been associated with a trenched
feature which was tentatively identified as a kiln. Another setting of stones was identified as a
second structure (of indeterminate shape). The associated material – fragments of crucibles
and heavily burnt or glazed clays – as well as the intensive burning, suggests that this may
have been a workshop.
A bronze pin was found on site associated with the early medieval enclosure; as were three
glass beads (two blue; one white); a fragment of a blue-glass bracelet; eight fragments of jet
bracelets; a crucible; remains of two quernstones; and a whetstone.
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