What is recorded here

Excavation: In 1974, before the alumina complex consumed the western edge of Aughinish Island, diggers opened a thirty-five-metre circular enclosure built directly on jagged bedrock. Inside its limestone-revetted bank lay two deep rock-cut pits, coarse pottery, a corroded iron bridle bit, a bronze chisel, and two saddle querns. The clarity of those finds marked the site as exclusively Late Bronze Age, revealing a domesticated corner of the island now buried beneath modern industry.

Close to the W edge of Aughinish Island, in area now occupied by an industrial complex (Aughinish Alumina). The site was excavated in 1974 prior to the industrial development. It consisted of a roughly circular area (diam. 35m) enclosed by a bank revetted internally and externally with limestone slabs and having a rubble core (Kelly 1974). Excavation showed the site was built directly on bedrock, though 'there was evidence of levelling and clearance of the jagged bed-rock in one area suggesting a house site' (ibid.). Also uncovered were two large rock-cut pits and 'traces of an occupation layer underlying the internal wall collapse, which produced coarse pottery, a heavily corroded iron bridle bit, a bronze chisel and pin and two saddle querns' (ibid.). These finds led the excavator to conclude that 'the site was built and occupied exclusively during the Late Bronze Age' (ibid.). A similar site was excavated at the same time 200m to the SE (LI010-019---). Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 26 August 2011

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