House — Bronze Age in Tonyquin

Located on a shelf on a W-facing slope overlooking the S-N Blackwater River which is c. 800m distant. Archaeological monitoring (09E0439) by The Archaeological Company over an extensive area (44.5 ha) in Tonyquin and Gortlaunaght townlands in advance of a quarry development identified numerous archaeological monuments including a Neolithic house, an oval enclosure and a ringfort (wwwexcavations.ie/report/2010/Cavan/0021290/ ). Further monitoring identified and excavated over 200 features, and intensive cleaning in particular areas identified 300 more, including two concentrations which proved to be this hut-site and what is probably a shelter (CV007-019002-) c. 40m to the S. These were excavated fully by Aidan O’Connell for Archer Heritage Planning under an extension of the same licence. The house is a circular feature in Area 5 identified by two rings of post-holes. The inner ring of 9 post-holes were larger and load-bearing to support the roof while the outer ring (diam. c. 9m) of 18 slighter post-holes provided the wall. It had a doorway (Wth 1m) at ESE where the two lines converged, with a light screen outside it represented by a line of stake-holes, and there was a central hearth. Outside the house a NW-SE line of pits just to the NE created a congested group at its S end c. 6m to the SE, and a similar NW-SE line of eight pits curved around the SW side of the house. Therse was an arc of 13 stake-holes (L 8.5m) c. 6m S of the house. Pottery sherds of Cordoned Urns from the pits suggest an Early-Middle Bronze Age date (Grogan and Roche 2010), and a C14 date of 1680–1510 bc (SUERC–3945-3310 ± 30 bp) (www.excavations.ie/report/2010/Cavan/0021291/) was recovered from a post-hole in the house. (O’Connell and O’Hara 2010, 6-9) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 2 February 2018 O’Connell, A. and R O’Hara 2010 Archaeological Excavation, Tonyquin, Swanlibar, Co. Cavan. Licence No. 09E0439 ext. Unpublished interim report, Archer Heritage Planning