Midden in Carrowdough

Situated in the base of an expansive, steep-sided hollow or valley, known locally as 'The Shelly Valley', which has been eroded out of high sand dunes on the peninsula that separates Culleenamore Strand to the SE and Strandhill Strand to the NW. Remnants of middens are exposed across an extensive area (c. 400m NW-SE; c. 200m NE-SW) on the sandy valley floor and in the surrounding marram grass-covered undulations. The middens are composed primarily of seashells, including periwinkle, oyster, cockles, limpets and mussels but, in some cases, also contain animal and fish bones and fire-cracked stones; some are centred on areas of charcoal-rich sand representing hearths. The dunes are subject to constant change as a result of storms and wind action: over time midden sites appear and disappear in the shifting sands; some are now evident as little more than thin surface skims of shell fragments. An excavation was carried out in 1981 on four hearths associated with the middens. A flint arrow head was recovered from one hearth and two iron nails from another. The hearths contain bones of cow, pig and sheep/goat, as well as hare, bird and fish bones, and shellfish, predominately oysters (Malmberg 1981, 32-37; 171–172). In 2015 a geoarchaeological research project was undertaken in the Shelly Valley (Napora et al. 2019). Samples were taken from one of the more substantial middens. This midden, located at approximately ITM 560049 835300, is composed predominately of periwinkles and limpets, but significant quantities of cockle shells are also present. A hoof bone from a pony, found on the surface of the midden, and charred plant material retrieved from a lower level were submitted for radiocarbon dating. The results date the midden to a period between mid-15th century to the 18th century (Napora, Rathbone and Bonsall 2017, 5; Napora et al. 2019, 9). The range of shell species indicates that the users of the midden exploited different coastal habitats in the area: periwinkle and limpets were most likely gathered from rocks and pools on the open ocean-facing shoreline to N and W, while cockles were collected from Culleenamore sand flats in the sheltered tidal bay to S (Napora et al. 2019, 12). The absence of fish bones is notable; one reason suggested for this is that the people at that period had no or only periodic or limited access to boats and fishing equipment (Napora et al. 2019, 13). In March 2019 a surface scatter (0.6m x 0.4m) of very fragmentary bones was exposed at ITM 560000 835273 (J. Bonsall, pers. comm.). It was inspected by a NMS archaeologist, and the bones, which were lying loose on the surface and vulnerable to destruction, were collected and removed for analysis. The flint arrow head found in 1981 and the post-medieval radiocarbon date from the 2015 investigation suggest a very long history of exploitation of marine resources in the Carrowdough/Culleenamore area, and individual middens in the Shelly valley may, therefore, date to any time from prehistory to the post-medieval period.