What is recorded here

Half the hearth was already gone when the diggers arrived, stolen by greedy hands the year before. What remained was a shallow stone ring on the south slope of Piperstown Hill, holding the ghost of a fire that burned during the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age. Twenty-three flints lay scattered around it, most of them mere chips rather than finished tools. The site belongs to a much larger settlement and cemetery, suggesting this was not a lonely shelter but one room in a busy hilltop village where people cooked, argued and raised the dead.

Situated on the S slopes of Piperstown Hill. A habitation site known as Site L. Excavated in 1962 it was found to comprise an irregular stony area with a central hearth defined by thin slabs on the north-eastern and south-eastern sides: the slabs along the other two sides had been removed by ‘treasure-hunting’ activities at the site during the previous year. The only finds from the excavation were twenty-three flints, all artificially struck but only four of which were artefacts, including a concave scraper. (Rynne and Ó hEailidhe 1965, 69-71). This is part of an extensive settlement and cemetery of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age date Compiled by: Paul Walsh and Padraig Clancy Revised upload on: 8 July 2018

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