EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Westmeath
Newtownlow, Co. Westmeath
Early Medieval Crannog
Grid reference: N38063702 (238062/237020)
SMR No: WM038-011
Excavation Licence No: N/A
Excavation duration/year: 1985; 1986.
Site directors: C. Bourke (Ulster Museum)
The early medieval crannog of Newtownlow, Co. Westmeath was located in a small, former
lake (250m by 500m) on a tributary of the River Brosna. The site is located 15-20m from the
original gently sloping shoreline to the south, and 60-70m to the base of a steep esker (which
runs east-west) to the north. The site was exposed during modern land reclamation in the
early 1980s, when a hoard of Anglo-Saxon pennies was recovered from the spoil. The site
was subsequently partly excavated by Cormac Bourke in the 1980s, but remains largely
unpublished.
This was an early medieval crannog built of a cairn of stones, earth and timber in marshy
ground at base of steep esker, probably occupied c. A.D. 950 to c. A.D. 1200 (contemporary
with Ballinderry no. 1, Co. Westmeath, which was 16km to the west). It is part of an early
medieval settlement complex, along with a large, univallate enclosure at Newtownlow
situated on slightly elevated ground, 150m to the west at the narrow end of the lake. The
crannog is also overlooked by a large, flat-topped earthen motte surmounted by a late
medieval cylindrical tower (‘Low’s Castle’) at Newtownlow, 300m to southeast. This may
originally have been an early medieval raised rath, appropriated by Anglo-Norman settlers in
the late twelfth century. There is also a probable late medieval parish church beside the
motte, surmounted by a probable seventeenth-century church built on the earlier site, with
an adjacent graveyard at Newtownlow. Palaeoecological studies from nearby Cornaher Lough
indicate early medieval agricultural activities and woodland clearance c. A.D. 500. All sites are
located south of a substantial esker that must have been an early route-way.
The crannog (17m by 17m, standing to a height of 1.5m) was built on a wooden substructure
on the underlying peat, of a platform of substantial trunks, across which were laid light
timbers and brushwood, interlocked by notches. This was covered with substructural layers of
clay, peat and stones, buttressed by heavy timbers at the edge. The occupation surface may
be represented by an organic, midden layer found in different areas of the site. A possible
house on the site was represented by a hearth set on a flat stone, and two arcs of oak stakes
(possibly remains of a wattle wall) from a sub-circular structure 6m by 4m in diameter. The
occupation layer appears to have been covered by a layer of red/orange soil, interpreted as
the burnt remains of a house. Otherwise, the occupation layer was sealed under a buff-tan
clay, incorporating charcoal, crucible fragments, pieces of slag and a possible furnace, but no
structures were found in this upper layer. The site was enclosed within an irregular palisade,
including a cleft oak palisade on the east side (including two rows of planks with horizontals
lying between) and an irregular roundwood post and plank palisade (with scatters of
roundwood outside it) on the west. Some bone objects and comb fragments, datable to the
tenth century AD, were found in association with this palisade, probably dating its
construction c. A.D. 950. Finds from the machine-disturbed layers in the middle and edge of
the site included a hoard of tenth-century Anglo-Saxon pennies (ranging A.D. 924-955,
probably deposited c. A.D. 950), 20 bronze stick pins, a square-sectioned whetstone with
copper-alloy fittings (probably a ceremonial sceptre). Finds from outside the palisade included
two quernstones, a wooden bucket stave, wooden staves from a small waisted vessel,
fragments of leather, a double-sided comb, a shafthole iron axe, an iron pan or ladle. A great
quantity of animal bone (including cattle, sheep, pig, goat, horse, red-deer, hare and fox)
was also found outside the palisade.
Towards the end of the site’s life history (possibly after a period of abandonment as indicated
by the rotten palisade planks), the palisade on the east and southeast was buried under a
large cairn of stones and the mound was covered under a sterile layer of clay. This
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