Midden

The National Monuments Service's description

Described in 2001 as 'This site was noted by Kimball during the Lough Swilly Archaeological Project and during fieldwalking a small selectiuon of Mesolithic and Neolithic artefacts was recovered. Harte had noted the siite in the 1860s. 'I had no difficulty in finding close to the embankment (at the Blanket Nook) the remains of a far larger bed than any of the others. (Harte had noted that it was longer than No 1 which was about 80 yards long) . I believe a good deal of the shells had been burnt for lime. The whole bed has been dug over, and the sea seems to have encroached upon it, as it is much more exposed than the others. I have marked it sit No 4 and have since received some flint flakes and split bones which were found there by my assistant'. An inspection of this site revealed, as noted by Kimball, that there was an extensive scatter of oyster shells in the topsoil-perhaps for a length of 100 metres along a ridge between the western edge of the field and the late medieval church siite (DG046-012-). There is no evidence that any remnants of the midden are still in situ. Down slope of the ridge is a deposit of comminuted shell fragments which appear to be reworked deposit of marine origin' (Woodman & Milner 2001, 28; Milner & Woodman 2007, 104-5, No. 8).

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 17 August 2010

References

Milner, N. and Woodman, P. 2007 Deconstructing the myths of Irish shell middens. In N. Milner, O.E. Craig and G. Bailey (eds) Shell middens in Atlantic Europe. Oxford. Oxbow.