Ring-ditch in Lehinch

No surface trace visible of any archaeological feature in the area excavated in 1979 by the National Museum. A small pennanular ditch (diam. 4m) was discovered to the S of the burials (Waddell 1990, 129). The National Museum of Ireland recorded that 'in March 1978 three human skeletons (OF008-012----) and a bowl were discovered during gravel-digging operations at Lehinch, near Clara, Co. Offaly. The site was a low natural hillock composed almost entirely of sand and gravel, and an oval pit measuring 8m by 7m by 3m deep had been dug into the centre of it for the purposes of obtaining sand. According to the landowner, Mr David Connor, the human remains—one apparently an extended inhumation—and bowl sherds were found towards the eastern side of the hillock. The site was first reported by Brother Angelo Holmes, a member of the Franciscan community at Clara, to Mr Etienne Rynne, who informed the NMI. A three-week excavation was undertaken by Raghnall Ó Floinn in July 1978, when six burials were excavated (Cahill and Sikora Vol. 2, 139-66, for the report on these burials, graves 1-5). A second season in 1979 comprised the excavation of a ring-ditch, which had been partially exposed the previous summer. A single extended skeleton had been discovered also in the same townland by Mr Connor in 1977. This was investigated by Mr Michael Ryan of the NMI' (Cahill and Sikora 2011, vol. 1, 386). See attached location map taken from Cahill and Sikora 2011. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 13 August 2012