Burnt spread in Croaghonagh, County Donegal

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Located on a natural elevation at the NE end of Lough Mourne, c. 45m SE of a Neolithic cairn (DG086-002001-). Discovered and fully excavated in 2011 during an archaeological excavation at the cairn carried out in advance of the proposed development of a dam at Lough Mourne (Delaney 2013). This consisted of a shallow spread (3.8m NW−SE; 2.2m NE−SW; D 0.2m) of charcoal, burnt clay and some heat-shattered stone, and was interpreted as a hearth or remains of a fire (Delaney 2013, 18). The charcoal fragments were identified as belonging to three species, oak, hazel and alder. A sample of alder charcoal sent for radiocarbon analysis returned a middle Bronze Age date, 1726-1523 BC (UBA 19990) (calibrated to 2 sigma). A flint core, a flint flake, and a fragment of a quartz flake were recovered. The burnt spread is one of a complex of monuments found here: An Early Bronze Age wedge tomb (DG086-002004-) was found 50m to NW, at the SW end of the Neolithic cairn (DG086-002001-); a pit (DG086-002006-), with associated burning, located c. 25m to NW, was also dated to the middle Bronze Age, and a Late Bronze Age fulacht fia (DG086-002007-) was found c. 60m to NW. (Delaney 2013).

From the National Monuments Service (Archaeological Survey of Ireland) record DG086-002005

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Photo credits

Maker not stated on source page, en.wikipedia.org
Darrin Antrobus, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0
Maker not stated on source page, www.pinterest.com
Kenneth Allen, Geograph · Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Maker not stated on source page, ph.pinterest.com
Wikimedia Commons contributor shown on the public file page · Public domain
Lisa Gallagher / Donegal Daily, www.donegaldaily.com
Kenneth Allen, Geograph · CC BY-SA 2.0

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