Settlement platform

The National Monuments Service's description

On rocky foreshore on the SSE side of Garret Island in Lough Gur. The site was discovered by Professor Frank Mitchell in 1948 and his discovery led to a subsequent archaeological/palaeo-environmental excavation in 1956 by both Mitchell and Liversage (1958, 67). The island is 150m NW of the Knockadoon peninsula where extensive archaeological excavations have uncovered significant Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological monuments (Cleary 2018). The site is one of three prehistoric settlement sites recorded on Garret Island (LI032-016/017/019----) which can be considered as the same monument. The prehistoric settlement is located around and within a medieval castle site (LI032-018----). A causeway (LI032-021----) from the S end of the island leads SE to the adjacent shore on the Knockadoon Peninsula.
The island is depicted on the 1840 ed. OSi 6-inch map as a circular island (ext. diam. 30m) known as Garret Island. The surface of the island was recorded 1m above the lake level in 1840 (76.8m OD). The island is later depicted as a significantly larger area (170m N-S; 65m E-W) on the 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch map, the lake level is recorded 1.5m lower in 1897, the lake level today remains at c. 75m OD. The excavation involved a series of cuttings. Site A (LI032-216----) was located on the old water line on the NNE side of the original circular island. Site B and a number of test pits (LI032-217---) are located on the SSE side of the island.
The trench at Site B (6m NW-SE; 3m SW-NE) was opened and excavated extending radially out from the edge of the large circular stone platform or island on which the castle wall is located. The finds uncovered included worked and butchered animal bone, flint artefacts and flakes, a quantity of prehistoric pottery dating from the Neolithic and Bronze Age and fire reddened heat shattered stone. The artefacts were uncovered in a similar deposit sequence to that recorded at Site A (LI032-216----), although a layer of tan clay associated with a cobbled surface survived and the artefacts from this horizon were interpreted to be Neolithic and in situ. The remaining layers were disturbed by water action and there was evidence of mixing of artefacts from different periods (Liversage 1958, 70-80). Fossilised tree stumps were recorded on the buried old lake margin. A sample from a tree stump (Ref: TCD/8) yielded a radiocarbon age of 3680bc + 125 years or a calibrated C14 age of 1722BC. This dates the end use (terminal age) of the buried surface to the Bronze Age as the lake level rose. The circular platform on the island is visible on Google Earth orthoimages taken 28/06/2018 and 20/09/2020 as open ground without tree cover.

See attached drawings by Liversage (1958) and Google Earth orthoimages

Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan

Date of upload: 31 October 2020

References

Liversage, G. D. 1958 An Island Site at Lough Gur. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 88, (1), 67-81.

Cleary, R. 2018 The archaeology of Lough Gur. Dublin. Wordwell.