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AR01055_EMAP_Gazetteer_of_Sites_4-2_10.pdf - The Heritage ...

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Fermanagh<br />

Coolcran, Co. Fermanagh<br />

Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.<br />

Grid Ref: H36495002 (23649/35002)<br />

SMR No: FER 194:006<br />

Excavation Licence: N/A<br />

Excavation Duration/Year: May – June 1983.<br />

Site Directors: B.B. Williams (Historic Monuments and Buildings Branch, Department<br />

<strong>of</strong> the Environment (NI)).<br />

<strong>The</strong> site consisted <strong>of</strong> a low circular earthen platform (2m high and 43m in diameter) set on<br />

the edge <strong>of</strong> a marshy valley. Excavation was necessitated due to a farm improvement<br />

scheme.<br />

Excavation revealed that the site had originally consisted <strong>of</strong> a univallate enclosure, just over<br />

30m in diameter. A line <strong>of</strong> stakeholes under the bank <strong>of</strong> this enclosure suggest that this<br />

settlement may have been preceded by a palisaded enclosure, which occupied a similar area.<br />

<strong>The</strong> interior <strong>of</strong> the site had been badly damaged by post-medieval agricultural activity, and<br />

only fragmentary structural features survived. <strong>The</strong>se would appear to be from the later,<br />

raised phase <strong>of</strong> the site. Three areas <strong>of</strong> cobbling survived (Fig. 144), and it has been<br />

suggested that these may represent an external yard surface. Two fire-pits were interpreted<br />

as potential domestic hearths, rather than furnace bottoms, because <strong>of</strong> the lack <strong>of</strong><br />

accompanying iron slag. <strong>The</strong>re was, however, evidence for three furnaces nearby: one was<br />

indicated by a concentration <strong>of</strong> charcoal, iron slag and a fragment <strong>of</strong> a tuyère; and another<br />

one appears to have had an associated stake-built structure.<br />

<strong>The</strong> most significant feature <strong>of</strong> this site was the discovery <strong>of</strong> the souterrain (Fig. 145). <strong>The</strong><br />

water-logged condition <strong>of</strong> the site meant the survival <strong>of</strong> almost 50 oak timbers which<br />

supported the souterrain ro<strong>of</strong>. A dark organic material, which ran around and between these<br />

timbers, was interpreted as the remains <strong>of</strong> wattle walling. Dates from thirteen <strong>of</strong> the timbers<br />

provided a felling date <strong>of</strong> A.D. 822±9 (suggesting that they were from the same tree) and,<br />

therefore, that the structure was built in the 820s. <strong>The</strong> construction date <strong>of</strong> the souterrain<br />

appears to have been contemporary with the raising <strong>of</strong> the mound on site.<br />

Apart from the metalworking debris, the only find <strong>of</strong> note was a rotary quernstone.<br />

289

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