House — medieval in Loughgur

On former pasture on a W-facing slope above and 20 W of the old lakeshore of Lough Gur, now located at the S 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 (House II (LI032-036001-) and House I (LI032-036002-) 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-) is located 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 I was sub-rectangular in plan, with an external length (E-W) of 14.5m and width (N-S) of 7.6m. There was no surviving evidence for internal partitions and the floor plan appears to have been a single room. The SW corner was square while the NE and SE corners were rounded. The N end of the house was cut through and disturbed by a trench for a yard fence associated with House II. The foundation trench of House I was U-shaped, 0.5-0.75m deep and 0.5-1.4m wide, being best preserved on the S and E sides. Little stone was recovered from the foundation trench and the walls were probably constructed either entirely of mud or of post and wattle liberally coated with mud. There was no evidence of post-holes in the foundation trenches to indicate that timber uprights were used as a frame, although the nature of the soil in Lough Gur does not easily allow for the recognition of post-holes unless the posts were driven into the underlying boulder clay. Over 500 large fragments of unweathered animal bone were recovered from the foundation trenches and their condition suggested that they were used as temper in the mud walls, which would have reduced excessive shrinkage as the mud dried. Mud walls may have been up to 1.5m thick. There was no surviving evidence for the roof; it may have been supported by a cruck-frame. The S wall trench was wider, and a stone-built hearth and ash pit were recorded there. A basal layer of stone marked the hearth but its floor did not survive. An ash pit immediately to the S was a stone-lined, box-like structure measuring 1.5m (N/S) by 0.8m (E/W) and set into the wall foundation below the floor level. Closely set paving in front of the hearth extended across the floor towards the E wall, and elsewhere the floor was clay. There was no trace of a break in the foundation trench to indicate an entrance. The threshold in House II (LI032-036001-) was laid over part of the foundation trench which was infilled. A stone-lined drainage channel in the NW corner of the house led out under the wall to a rectangular pit, 2m by 1m wide. The pit fill included charred weeds of creeping buttercup (Ranunculus sp.), rushes (Juncus sp.) and sedges (Carex sp.), which are commonly found in damp areas; the weeds may have been brought in with rushes used as bedding in the house. A second pit, 0.7m S of the house, was also stone-lined and rectangular in plan, 4.5m long by 2m wide. The paving on the E side of the house continued to the edge of the pit. The pit contained some animal bone that was discoloured owing to contact with human bodily waste, indicating that at some stage the pit was used as a latrine adjacent to the house. Dating of this house is based on the pottery finds, which consisted of fragments of 13th to early 14th century green-glazed jugs, including some decorated examples made in the Limerick area. A bone die with well-polished surfaces was recovered from the NW pit and the values were indicated by dot-and-circle impressions’. 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