Field system

The National Monuments Service's description

In commonage, located on an open coastal plain delimited to N and W by cliffs, at the extreme western end of Clare Island. An early 19th-century signal tower (NIAH: Reg. No. 31308401), with associated enclosure (MA084001002-) and limekiln (MA084-001003-), stands close to the N extent of the field system. The townland boundary between Bunnamohaun and Strake roughly coincides with the SE limits. The area has been extensively cutover for turf in the relatively recent past, and is dotted with disused stone-built turf stacks.
This field system consists of a series of low, ruinous field walls (Wth 0.75-2m; max. H c. 0.5m) visible as meandering, linear tumbles of loose stones and boulders, in some cases barely protruding above the sod. (Gosling et al. 2007, 195-196, no. 183). The remains cover an extensive area, but are fragmentary and do not form an overall coherent pattern; they may not all be of the same date.
Towards the N extent of the field system, a concentration of fragmentary walls is visible on the slopes of a rocky knoll, and is associated with a possible cairn (MA084-036----) and a possible hut site (MA084-037----). One wall can be traced an irregular, meandering arc (c. 35m N–S), enclosing part of the E slope of the knoll. (pers. comm. Michael Gibbons, 2020).
Towards the S end of the extent of the field system, the walls are overlain by the line of an unfinished nineteenth-century roadway that terminates to SW at the rocky shoreline at Lackwee. A number of small clearance cairns are visible in this area, but these are more likely to be associated with the road-building rather than field clearance (Gosling et al. 2007, 195-196, no. 183).
The greatest concentration of walls is in the central and eastern part of the field system’s extent, where some of the walls appear to enclose a cluster of irregular-shaped fields. Here the walls are spatially associated with a number of short linear spreads of stone. These appear to be the remnants of old tillage headlands that define the limits of small tillage plots discernible by their relative smoothness and absence of surface stone. Turf stacks in this area may have been constructed using stones robbed from the earlier field walls (ibid. 195-196). Several monuments are spatially associated with the walls, though not necessarily contemporary with them; these include a number of houses and hut sites (MA084-001004---- to MA084-001006-; MA084-011---- to MA084-017----), a structure (MA084-018----), a cairn (MA084-009----) and a circular enclosure (MA084-001007-).

In September 1994 an excavation (94E0136) was undertaken which aimed to date the walls and establish their role in the settlement history of the island (King 2007, 291-296). The wall, oriented WNW–ESE, chosen for excavation was still covered by layers of peat. It lies close to a circular house (MA084-001004-), and its W end peters out close to sea-cliffs above Budawanny. Two trenches (Wth 1.5-3m), 145m apart, were opened across the wall. A sample of vegetal material from the base of the wall in Trench 2 produced a radiocarbon date of 2468+/-30 BP suggesting a late prehistoric date for the wall construction. A sample of peat from immediately above the wall in Trench 1 produced a radiocarbon date of 1689+/-30 BP, calibrating to 257-301/317-420 AD (two sigma), indicating that peat formation was underway and the wall abandoned by the third or fourth centuries AD (King 2007, 296).

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of revised upload: 23 January 2020

References

Gosling, P., Manning, C. and Waddell, J. (eds.) 2007 New Survey of Clare Island, Volume 5: Archaeology. Dublin, Royal Irish Academy.

King, P. 2007 The archaeological excavation of a pre-bog field wall (Cat. No. 183), at Bunnamohaun. In Gosling, Manning and Waddell (eds.), New Survey of Clare Island, Volume 5: Archaeology, 291-296.