Metalworking site

The National Monuments Service's description

The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007

Situated on a gentle slope to E of a steep ravine, on a fairly level terrace on the SW slopes of Slievestucan. Immediately NW of entrance to ringfort (LH004-084001-). The site consists of a hut site, broadly oval in shape (int. dims. 6m E-W, 4.7m N-S), with an earth and stone wall enclosing the interior. The E half of the hut site is enclosed by large boulders (H 0.5m) set into the face of the hill slope, with stone-lined entrance gap at SSW. In the W of the interior is a depression, sub-rectangular in plan (1.3m E-W, 1.1m N-S, D 0.8m), partly lined with stone. A long depression (D 0.7m) extends from this to WNW, through a gap in the bank and on down to the ravine.
There are similarities to the excavated iron working site at Glannafeen, Co. Cork (JRSAI 1955, 94-9), but the depression may equally represent the remains of a hearth or cooking pit and drain.