EMAP_2012_Report_6_1.pdf (7.3 MB) - The Heritage Council

number of hearths as indicative of relatively poor and inefficient levels of skill in ferrous
metalworking (Photos-Jones 2008a). At Carrigatogher Harding, an enclosed settlement with a
cemetery was sited close to a stream directed through the eastern part of the enclosure with
extensive deposits (750kg) of iron slag, charcoal and a tuyère (Taylor 2009, 30-31). Possible
furnaces were found in the outer enclosure to the south of the cemetery enclosure (ibid.).
Likewise at Balriggan an extensive spread of burnt stone and charcoal was associated with
bloomery iron smelting and smithing (113.5kg) in the northwest of the enclosure containing
the burials (Photos-Jones 2011, cliii). This was associated with features such as pits and
postholes and gullies and was in close proximity to a stream. The proximity and incorporation
of the stream may have been connected with metallurgical processes among other things.
This can be compared with the evidence from Clonfad. Here excavations at the produced
evidence for a highly specialised iron-smithing area (with up to up to 1,500 kg of smithing
waste) dating to between the sixth and ninth centuries A.D. adjacent to a stream on the
eastern side of the multivallate enclosed site (Stevens 2006, 10, 2007, 42-3; Young 2009a;
Stevens 2010, 89-94,). The earliest metalworking activity dated to the fifth and sixth century
and included a 1.5 tonne dump of slag residue from large-scale iron-smithing brazing shroud
fragments (vitrified clay pieces) used in the brazing process during the manufacture of
wrought-iron hand-bells. Iron-working continued in the seventh and eighth century and the
backfilled enclosing ditches produced evidence for metal scrap, ingots, ceramic crucible
fragments, smithing hearth cakes, tuyères, stone casting moulds and ferrous and copperalloy
tools and objects (Stevens 2010, 91). The majority of the evidence related to primary
and secondary smithing waste with evidence for smelting almost completely absent (Stevens
2010, 93). At Dooey, a site within the sandhills which contained an enclosure containing
burials appears to have had an emphasis on craftworking including iron production (Ó’
Riordaín & Rynne 1956). There has been no specialist analysis of the metallurgical evidence
but the scale of the iron-working is evidenced by the presence of 120 iron knives. The site
may have been used as a beach-market for traders moving down the North Atlantic seaways
between Northwest Ireland and Scotland (O'Sullivan and Breen 2007, 119). While the link
between burials and iron-working has been emphasised in recent studies (Williams 2010, 31-
45) there can be no simple equation between iron-working and sites with settlement and
burials. Sites such as Owenbristy which was in use for 600 years which was fully excavated
had minimal levels of smithing slag while enclosed familial burial grounds like Collierstown
also had tiny quantities (Lehane and Delaney 2010, 47, O’ Hara 2009, 6).
Several types of craftwork have been identified in Scandinavian Dublin but despite extensive
excavation, iron-working areas have yet to be identified. Wallace (2004, 833) has speculated
that ‘the great fires that were so essential for the smith and his forge almost certainly meant
that they had to be located at some distance from the town’ outside the defences. Evidence
for iron-working has, however, been found within a building in Peter Street in twelfth century
Waterford (Scully and McCutcheon 1997, 104).
2.6: Levels of iron-working
Scott (1991, 101) described five levels of iron-working on Irish sites; specialist smelting and
bloom smithing sites, occasional smelting and smithing sites, sites forging artefacts from
imported stock for local and wider communities and sites engaging in occasional artefact
repair and production. In discussing the iron-working evidence from the M4 Carlin suggested
three levels of ferrous metallurgy (2008, 108-10). Carlin’s first level saw local farmers
undertaking iron-working at a very low non-specialist subsistence level. It was probably
imperative for small self-sufficient farmsteads to possess a basic knowledge of the technology
repair iron artefacts (Edwards 1990, 86; Mytum 1992, 235). His second level and third levels
were high status ecclesiastical and secular sites which patronised blacksmiths alongside other
specialist craftsmen (Carlin 2008, 109-111). A number of royal sites, such as Lagore
(Hencken 1950), Garranes (Ó’ Ríordáin 1942) and possibly Moynagh Lough (Bradley 1993),
have been described as specialist metalworking centres which probably employed skilled
craftsmen in return for food and raw materials. Large monastic centres such as Clonfad,
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