Pit in Croaghonagh

Located on a natural elevation at the NE end of Lough Mourne, immediately 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 subcircular pit (1.3m by 1.2m; D 0.43m) with a rounded base. There was evidence that the pit may have had a clay lining. A spread (7.8m by 6.4m; D 0.1m) of burnt material, interpreted as the remains of a bonfire, overlay and was centred on the pit, and a smaller burnt deposit lay immediately to NE. Charcoal fragments were identified as belonging to three species, oak, hazel and a species of the hawthorn/mountain ash family. A sample of alder charcoal sent for radiocarbon analysis retuned a middle Bronze Age date, 1436-1309 BC (UBA 19991) (calibrated to 2 sigma). An assemblage of flint quartz artefacts recovered from the pit and the burnt layer also dated to the Bronze age (Delaney 2013, 18-19). The pit is one of several Bronze Age monuments found in close proximity to the Neolithic cairn (DG086-002001-): An Early Bronze Age wedge tomb (DG086-002004-) was found 30m to W of the pit, a burnt spread (DG 086-002005-), located c. 25m to SE, was also dated to the middle Bronze Age, and a Late Bronze Age fulacht fia (DG086-002007-) was found c. 30m to NW. (Delaney 2013). Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 16 January 2018