House — medieval in Loughgur

On former pasture on a W-facing slope above and 20m W of the old lakeshore of Lough Gur, now located at the N end of a public carpark. The site is located within an area of dense archaeological activity dating from the Neolithic up to the present day around Lough Gur (Cleary 2018). The House site is one of two medieval houses (LI032-036001-/002-) excavated 20m apart in the Lough Gur Visitors Centre Carpark (Cleary 1982). The Early Medieval settlement site known as the ‘Spectacles’ at Drumlaegh (LI032-014012-) lies 390m to NNW; a crannóg known as Bolin Island (LI032-027----) is located 230m to NW; a Middle Bronze Age house site (LI032-014014-) and Food Vessel Burial (LI032-014014-) excavated as part of the same campaign of archaeological excavations was excavated 285m to NNW; a bullaun stone (LI032-038----) lies 110m to SE and Bourchier’s Castle (LI032-022034-) stands 130m to SW. The archaeological discoveries were made during excavations carried out in advance of the construction of the Lough Gur Visitors Centre carpark in 1977-8. The excavated remains were not depicted on historic OSi maps prior to their discovery. The car park is visible on OSi orthoimages taken 2005-12 and on Digital Globe orthoimages taken 2011-2013. Rose Cleary (2018, 302-15) described the site as follows: ‘House II (LI032-036001-), to the NW of House I (LI032-036002-), was larger, rectangular in plan and divided into two sections. The structure was originally interpreted as having two rooms; although it is more likely that the W side was a house and that the larger ‘room’ on the E side was some type of barn. The S wall foundation continued E to form the wall foundation of the barn, and both the house and barn were probably built as a single structure. The W wall foundation extended for 3m beyond the end wall and formed part of a stone-built annexe for House II. The house was rectangular in plan, with maximum external dimensions of 11.2m (N-S) by 8m (E-W). Internally, the floor plan measured 8.6m by 5m. The foundation trenches were 1.2-2m wide and 0.5-0.7m deep and, similar to House I (LI032-036002-), it is suggested that the house was mud-built with thick walls set into foundation trenches. Four large boulders that were natural glacial erratic’s were left in the E trench, as presumably they were too awkward to move, and they remained as part of the foundation. The foundation trenches also contained unweathered animal bone and, as at House I (LI032-036002-), this was interpreted as ‘temper’ included in the wall to reduce the amount of shrinkage when the mud dried and solidified. Over 3,000 animal bone fragments were recovered from in and around the house, including the wall foundation trenches, a spread of earth inside the door and a midden outside the door. As at House I (LI032-036002-) , there was no evidence for the roof but it may have been cruck-framed or supported on wall-plates laid along the top of the walls. The roof was most likely thatched with straw or reeds. The door was on the W side and was marked by a stone threshold. The foundation trench was continuous here and the threshold was set into a section of the trench that was infilled with stones. The door location was apparently undecided until the foundations were dug. The threshold was slightly off-centre in the wall and comprised one large stone, c. 1m long on the inside, and a roughly paved area extended outwards from the door. The threshold/paved area was at maximum 1.2m wide and the door was probably slightly narrower. A post-hole on the N side probably marked the door-jamb. As the house was built on a slope, the builders introduced a layer of earth to level up the floor. This earth fill was thickest (0.25m) at the threshold and petered out towards the east within the house. The purpose of a post-hole within the earth layer is unknown’. A lean-to building constructed was against the S wall of House II (ibid, 309). ‘The W wall was a continuation of the house wall; the east wall was drystone-built, and a stone wall was also partially built against the S wall of the house. The E stone wall was a c. 5m-long single row of stones that survived to a height of two courses or 0.5m. There was a marked concentration of animal bones from around the stone annexe, the sink-hole and the yard fence foundations adjacent to the annexe. These were tinged green and were probably in contact with human or animal waste, and it is possible that a dunghill existed just outside the stone annexe and adjacent to the yard fence. There were foundation trenches for fencing around a large enclosure or yard to the S of the house. The fences, constructed after House I had been levelled, were erected over part of the foundation trench of its N wall. They were 0.5-1.5m wide and 0.2-0.3m deep below the boulder clay level but were probably deeper when dug from the contemporary ground surface; they were interpreted as the footings or bedding trench for timber or wattle fences. The yard was at maximum 25m wide (N-S) and the excavated length was 18m (E-W) but it continued outside the excavation limits. There was a large oval pit to the cast side and about 1.5m S of the yard fence. Its dimensions (2.75m E-W by 1.3m N-S) and alignment, the displaced large stone blocks which may have lined its sides and the charred remains of bread wheat, barley and oats suggested that it was used to dry corn. The kiln was poorly preserved but may have been keyhole in plan. The excavations on the car-park site also produced a number of quernstone fragments, showing that cereals were ground on site for domestic consumption. The fill of the corn-drying kiln included a sherd of locally made late 13th / early 14th century pottery and an iron key of 12th / 13th century date, and the kiln may have been contemporary with House I or II. A stone-built hearth, 1m S of the barn wall, had two rows of stones with an intermediary stone. Stake-holes around the hearth indicated a spit over the fire, which either allowed for roasting meat or perhaps held pots to cook cereals or bake outside the house. A sherd of early 14th century pottery from the hearth suggested that it was in use at the same time as House II. Also within the yard was a 4m-long stone-covered drain leading to a paved area was set in a shallow foundation against the N wall of the house. Much of the paving was, however, disturbed by a modern horse burial. Two parallel trenches, set 6.5m apart internally, extended from the eastern side of the house, and this section of the structure is interpreted as a barn or byre attached to the house. The archaeological evidence for the type of building suggests that it was of similar construction to the house, being a thick-walled mud-built structure with some stones at the basal levels of the foundation trench. Two large post-holes (0.35-0.5m in diameter) on either side of the N foundation trench may mark the position of a wide or double door on the N side of the barn; a wide door would have facilitated the passage of stock or carts into the barn. The vestiges of 27 post-holes immediately S of the possible entrance may mark some internal fitting such as a manger, a hayrack or perhaps a sty. A hearth that was simply a spread of oxidised soil and charcoal almost abutted the N wall of the barn. The carpark, the location spot of the excavation, is visible on Google Earth orthoimage taken 28/06/2018. See attached Google Earth orthoimage Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan Date of upload: 23 November 2020