Settlement cluster in Carns

In an E-W fold at the E end of the broad WNW-ESE Carnfree ridge, c. 300m E of Carn Lamha (RO028-070----). Known locally as the Sean Bhaile, it is thought to have had a fair but had been abandoned before 1800 AD (Gormley 1989, 24). An area of about 27 acres (c. 11 ha), with a core of about 11 acres (c. 4.5 ha) contains small rectangular fields (dims c. 15m x. c. 30m) at the core defined by earthen banks (Wth 2-3m; H 0.5m), and five house sites (ext. dims c. 8m x c. 4m) of one room and three of two rooms (ext. dims c. 17m x c. 7.6m) defined by wall footings. Outside the core area larger fields (dims c. 50m x c. 100m) include some with evidence of lazy-bed cultivation. Excavation (07E0688) on a two-roomed house (RO028-074007-) demonstrated that the earthen walls were constructed around wooden posts. It had two hearths, and the finds recovered included fragments of a chamber pot, a glass necklace and a clay pipe-stem, suggesting that it was abandoned during the eighteenth century. An adjacent field bank was originally drystone-built, but a nearby pit is undated although prehistoric lithics were recovered nearby. (Shanahan 2010b) See the attached aerial photograph taken from the N. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revised upload: 6 August 2015