What is recorded here

Midden in Hall Demesne is a thin shell layer trapped inside a living dune on the north coast of Donegal Bay. Mustels, clams, periwinkles and limpets still gleam in grey sand below the pale surface, marking a place where people ate, discarded and belonged before the sea took the shape of the land back.

In sand dunes on a small headland jutting into the N side of Donegal Bay. A thin layer (L 1.4m at least; T c. 0.05m) of sea shells is visible in section in the eroding S-facing slope of a sand dune, at a level c. 2.5m below the top of the dune. The shells –mussels, clams, periwinkles and limpets- occur in a matrix of grey sand, noticeably darker than the pale sand in the dunes as a whole. The layer is very degraded and gapped, intermittent traces are visible further to E, but its full extent is uncertain. There is a burial (DG099-022----) a few meters to W, and a hut site (DG099-020----) and cluster of cairns (DG099-021001---- to DG099-021006-) are located 90m to W in the same dune system. Attached images: DG099-023----_01.JPG Midden exposed in section DG099-023----_02.JPG Location viewed from S Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 28 November 2019

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