House - indeterminate date

The National Monuments Service's description

In wet pasture, 5m S of a land drain and 30m E of a tributary of the Camoge River. A second house of indeterminate date (LI023-066001-) lies 12m to NE. Not depicted on OSi historic maps. Identified by Ó Ríordáin and MacDermott (1949, 136-8) as a house of indeterminate date (Ballingoola III). Excavated in 1948 and described as following; 'Ballingoola III showed before excavation as a low mound with a broad shallow ditch - the maximum difference between bottom of ditch and highest point of mound being 65cm. The entrance was apparent before excavation as demonstrated by the incurving of the contours towards the centre on the eastern side of the site. The entrance, the main portion of the interior and sections through the ditch were excavated. In general the site suggests a house of the same type as the hut at Grange, but larger, average diameter about 6 metres. The entrance presents rather confused evidence and it is difficult to know where the house proper ceases here, but there is a suggestion that the house was longer on the East-West than on the North-South axis. The only finds were two pieces of polished stone axes (both fragments broken from the butt-ends of the axes), and a crudely chipped flint. The larger axe fragment (12:5) was of shale, the other (12:6) of a close-grained dark stone. These finds came from the north-east quadrant inside the inner ditch (Ó Ríordáin and MacDermott 1949, 135-6). Excavated monument is not visible on Digital Globe orthophotos taken 2011-13 and on Google Earth orthoimages taken 28/06/2018.

See attached location map and contour plan of Ballingoola IV after Ó Ríordáin and MacDermott 1949.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly

Date of upload: 28 August 2020

References

Ó Ríordáin, S.P. and MacDermott, M. 1949 Lough Gur Excavations: Three marsh-land habitation sites. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 79, 126-45.