EMAP_2012_Report_6_1.pdf (7.3 MB) - The Heritage Council

Elliot 2008, 101). However, iron-working appears to have taken place within actual structures
at Lowpark (above), Reask (Fanning 1981, 106-8), Church Island (O’Kelly 1958, 69) and at
least eight other structures (Table 2.3). A further example may be within the figure-of–eight
house at Ballynavenooragh, stone fort which contained a feature described as a ‘small
furnace’ (Gibbons 1997). The majority of these structures were sited within the enclosure
itself. It is possible that iron-working occurred after the houses became derelict, as was the
case at Illaunloughan where the church was later used for iron-working (Marshall & Walsh
2005, 46). Tierney and Elliot (2008, 105), however, suggest that iron-working was best
undertaken indoors in more sheltered darkened locations where it was easier ‘to judge the
flame colour of the smelting furnace and the colour of the metal when it is heated for
smithing’.
Site
Ballyvourney
‘St Gobnets’
Residue
weight
Large
amounts
Caricalla More 13kg Univallate
settlement
Site Type Structure Reference
Other Successive circular and rectangular
structures with internal smelting furnace,
charcoal, crucibles
O’Kelly 1952,
32-5
Circular building with internal pits containing Taylor 2006
large amounts of slag and charcoal, whet
stones, chisel, anvil stone
Rectangular building with slag Taylor 2009, 30
Carrigatogher
Harding
750kg Cemetery/Settl
ement
Gortnahown 158kg Univallate Circular building containing smithing hearth Young 2009b
enclosure
Killickaweeny 86kg Univallate Rectangular structure containing Walsh 2008,
enclosure hammerscale close to metalworking area 40-2
Mackney 12kg Univallate Postholes around smelting furnaces Delaney 2009,
enclosure
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Milltown 3kg Unenclosed Circular building containing smelting furnace Young 2009e, 1
Sallymount 265kg Univallate Rectangular building with smithing hearth, Clarke & Long,
enclosure hammerscale
2009
Table 2.3 Examples of structures associated with metalworking indicating site
name, overall quantity of metallurgical debris, site type, structural context and
reference.
At Nendrum, there was evidence for ferrous and non-ferrous metal-working from the ‘hut
circles’ within the middle enclosure (Bourke 2007, 407, 419; McErlean 2007a, 374-8) and
outside the enclosures close to the site of the horizontal mills (McErlean & Crothers 2007a,
68, 2007b, 110). This confirmed Ryan’s (1988, 45) conclusion that monastic metalworking
was kept well away from the sacred centres of these sites. There was abundant evidence for
iron smelting and smithing in various areas at Clonmacnoise in the form of slag, furnace
bottoms and furnace material (King 2009, 341-3). However, only one definite small bowlshaped
furnace or smithing hearth has yet been found at the base of an esker in a sheltered
position outside the monastic enclosure to the southwest of the site (Ó Floinn & King 1998,
130-1). It appears though that the area to the west and northwest of the ecclesiastical
buildings within the monastic enclosure was dedicated to iron-working. A layer of furnace
waste, iron slag and tuyère fragments were found to the west of the site (Manning 1989) and
a vast quantity of dumped iron-working material containing slag, furnace bottoms, smithing
cakes, tuyère fragments was found to the northwest of this. All parts of the iron-working
process were evident indicating that these activities (smelting and smithing) were probably
undertaken close to the excavated area (King 2009, 341-3).
A series of sites were associated with burial, settlement and different stages of iron
production. At Johnstown 1, the settlement was primarily associated with the smelting and
processing of bog ore (smelting pits & bowl furnaces) but the discovery of smithing hearths
also indicates the forging and repair of iron objects. The site produced some 2,000kg of
metallurgical waste though this activity continued intermittently for a thousand years from
A.D. 500-1500. Most of the smelting pits were located outside the enclosure or within the
enclosure ditches where much of the slag was dumped (Clarke and Carlin 2008, 74-5). Where
iron-working was undertaken within the enclosure, it was located in the western areas where
there were fewer burials (ibid. 74). The specialist viewed the levels of waste produced and
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