Caherconnell Stone Fort
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Caherconnell Stone Fort |
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The Archaeological Dig at Caherconnell Stone Fort during August 2007.
The following details the excavations undertaken by Dr. Michelle Comber of N.U.I.G. and Graham Hull of TVAS archaeology. Click HERE > > > to view details of Dr. Comber's outline plan for future Burren excavations The distinctive karst landscape of the Burren, Co. Clare, provides a rare opportunity
to examine the preserved remains of past agricultural settlement. Occupation
sites and associated field systems can be found throughout this area
of northeast Clare. These settlement enclosures mostly comprise
stone cashels, with a much smaller number of earthen ringforts or ‘raths’.
 The interior of Caherconnell Stone fort
is slightly raised above exterior ground level, with the remains of
at least two structures visible in the interior. It is impossible to
determine from inspection of the above-ground foundations whether or
not these date to the primary period of cashel use. Although much of
the surrounding area is employed in modern agriculture, the remains
of adjacent cashel-like enclosures and ancient field walls still survive
to the southwest, providing some evidence of the landscape that surrounded
the cashel during the period of its use. The proposed
excavation at Caherconnell is designed to both reveal information on
the site itself, and also integrate into a wider study of the archaeological
landscape currently being undertaken in the Department of Archaeology,
NUI, Galway. Some landscape
survey has been undertaken in the Burren. The first attempt at landscape
mapping was completed by Blair Gibson as part of his doctoral thesis
studying the chiefdom of Tulach Commain and the archaeological remains
in the area of Cahercommaun, to the southeast of Caherconnell. Gibson’s
survey, however, was not an electronic one and did not record the same
density or detail of surviving remains (Gibson 1990). A more recent
digital survey in the area was carried out by Dr. Carleton Jones of
NUI Galway, at Roughan Hill to the southeast. This work had a prehistoric
focus, but did incorporate all archaeological remains in its survey.
Not yet published, the results of this project (which included excavation)
should compliment and expand the proposed work at Caherconnell. Also relevant
to the proposed excavation at Caherconnell is a study of the cashels and associated remains in a study area
extending south from Caherconnell as far as Kilfenora, east to Carran
and Cahercommaun, and southeast to Leamaneh. This project, Ringforts
and the Settlement Landscape of the Burren in the First Millennium AD,
commenced in 2005 and has been funded by the Heritage Council of Ireland.
It marks the start of a study of the settlement landscape of the first
millennium AD in a chosen study area within the Burren, Co. Clare. The
area in question incorporates the shifting political boundaries of Coru
Mruad territory. The first year saw the analysis of data from all relevant
monuments within the study area, numbering approximately three hundred
extant sites (mostly cashels, raths, enclosures and ecclesiastical remains).
This analysis revealed that many of these settlements were deliberately
sited to best exploit the most fertile farmland in the area, a not uncommon
tendency in this period. It also suggested, however, that perhaps some
settlement may have been strategically positioned with regard to communication
strategies and territorial politics. Caherconnell is one such site,
positioned as it is at one end of a major north-south pass through the
Burren mountains (still used today by the two modern roads, the N67
and R480). The next, logical step in this study is the acquisition of scientific dating evidence from as many parts of this landscape as possible, from cashels, small enclosures, ancient field walls etc. Only then can the mapped remains be interpreted in any truly meaningful way. The proposed excavation at Caherconnell should provide both chronological and functional evidence vital to the interpretation of the site itself, and very relevant to a landscape study such as that described above. Methodology of the Dig > > >This project is supported by leader.   | ||||
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