Prehistoric site - lithic scatter

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the E shoreline of Clonava Island at the NW end of Lough Derravaragh. The Mesolithic shoreline of the lake was exposed after the Inny River was drained in the 1960s resulting in the lowering of the water level on Lough Derravaragh. Described as Site 2a by Professor Frank Mitchell (Mitchell 1972, 166). Clonava Island is a knoll of calcite mudstone with numerous bands of chert. The 'island' appears to have been an attractive settlement site in prehistoric times. The chert at Lake Derravaragh has an unusual banded structure and disintegrates easily on exposure to the weather. Site 2a was described by Mitchell as 'shaly and flaggy limestone with layers and nodules of chert outcrops on the shore of Clonava Island. At Site 2a, where the chert outcropped on the part of the foreshore that had been exposed by drainage, there was a scatter of chert debitage and implements. Two well worked pointed picks of chert were found here' (Mitchell 1972, 166-70). Today there are no surface remains visible of this lithic scatter. The distinctive chert from this site described as 'festoon' chert may have been quarried from Knockeyon Hill (WM012-209----) where natural outcrops of this chert can be found (Little 2014, 8).

Compiled by: Frank Coyne & Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 2 February 2017

References

Little, A 2014 Clonava Island revisited: a story of cooking, plants and re-occupation during the Irish Late Mesolithic. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 114, 1-21.

Mitchell, G.F. 1972 Some ultimate Larnian sites at Lake Derravaragh, Co. Westmeath. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 102, 160-73.