What is recorded here

Three stone-lined furnace pits still hold charcoal-rich soil and iron slag on the west bank of the River Moy. Radiocarbon dates place their use between 477 BC and 25 AD, while a burial ground lies forty metres south. The road works exposed the site, but the furnaces may have smelted local ore long before written records reached Tonybaun.

In lowlying flat ground bordering the W bank of the River Moy. There was a burial ground (MA039-107003-), later used as a children's burial ground (MA039-107----), located c. 40m to S. This metal-working site was discovered during archaeological testing (03E0139) in advance of a road construction project on the N26; it was subsequently fully excavated (Nolan 2008, 89-101). A cluster of features were uncovered providing evidence of ore extraction and smelting, including three furnace pits with fills of charcoal-rich soil mixed with iron slag, and associated spreads of burnt material and slag. Radiocarbon dates indicated that the metal-working site was in use in the Iron Age: One of the furnace pits, with stone-lined sides and a flat slab forming the base, dated to the period 477-210 BC, and another pit produced dates in the range 166 BC-25 AD (Nolan 2008, 99). Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 14 April 2020

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