A Short Appreciation of Archaeology in County Mayo, Ireland. Part 1.

Archaeology is the study and interpretation of our past from material traces left behind by human beings, so as to enable us to better understand how people lived and behaved from the earliest times to yesterday. We are dependent on archaeology alone in any attempt to understand the prehistoric period, the period before writing began, which was about the fifth or sixth centuries of the Christian era in Ireland, and to complement it thereafter. Over the years, several amateur and professional archaeologists have made an enormous contribution to the discovery and identification of archaeological monuments in County Mayo, in the west of Ireland. There are now over 8,560 monuments for County Mayo recorded under 181 classifications on the national Site and Monuments Record (SMR) database (www.archaeology.ie Mayo). This blog provides an appreciation to some of the archaeological monuments in County Mayo over various periods from prehistory to recent times. Mesolithic Period (c.8000-5500BC)

According to the present state of archaeological knowledge, the first people arrived in Ireland sometime after the end of the Ice Age and before 7000BC during the Middle Stone Age (the Mesolithic period). They settled in riverine and estuarine habitats, securing their food by hunting and fishing as well as gathering shellfish and hazel-nuts. Their most diagnostic stone tool is the microlith, a small flint blade used for hunting and fishing. These people are believed to have led nomadic lives, and built no permanent structures such as houses or tombs. The distribution of settlement during the Mesolithic period was probably quite wide; the best known site is Mount Sandel on the banks of the River Bann in County Derry. Some finds from this period were made in County Mayo. A Bann Blade was found in Lough Urlaur, Aghamore, and other material in a bay near Belderg, close to the Lough Feagh and Furness river system in Burrishoole, on the shore of Lough Lannagh, near Castlebar, and around the River Robe near Claremorris.

Neolithic Period (c.4000- 2400 BC)

According to present evidence, our first farmers arrived in Ireland shortly after 4000 BC during the Neolithic (New Stone) Age, with some of them settling in Mayo. Apart from farming activities, they introduced the custom of constructing elaborate funerary monuments made with large rough stones; the remains of many of these have been found in the county. Such a tomb consists of a burial chamber, or chambers, with an entrance at one end, generally constructed with large upright stones and roofed with lintels or corbels, surmounted by a covering cairn or mound. Irish megalithic tombs are divided into four classes: court tombs, portal tombs, passage tombs and wedge tombs, with examples of each type in the county.

Most archaeologists consider court tombs to be the earliest of the megalithic tombs in Ireland, dating mainly from about 4000 to 3000 BC. A court tomb is a Neolithic burial-gallery, divided by jambs into two or more rectangular chambers, with a ceremonial unroofed courtyard in front (hence the name). Of the 427 court tombs known in Ireland, eighty-five (=20%) are located in County Mayo, the highest number for any county. Distribution of court tombs in Mayo falls into three main groups: the north-east, the west coast and the Moy valley. The densest cluster, containing over thirty tombs, occurs in the north-east, including some well-known tombs like Behy, Belderg More, Glenulra, and Ballyglass.

A portal tomb is a Neolithic burial-chamber consisting of a massive capstone resting on two well-matched upright stones, known as portals, and a backstone. The heavier end of the capstone rests on the portals and slopes down towards the backstone. Of the 200 portal tombs in the country, there are eight in County Mayo. These are in the north-west and east of the county.

A passage tomb is a Neolithic burial-chamber constructed under a circular mound or cairn, with an entrance passage and a surrounding kerb. The passages into the burial-chambers of such tombs are usually roofed with lintels, and the chambers often have beautiful corbelled roofs.. Passage tombs are usually found on hilltops and most of the 229 discovered in Ireland to date are concentrated north of a line from the mouth of the River Boyne to Ballina. There is a passage tomb in Carrowreagh near Bunnyconnellan and another in Westport Demesne.

The last type of megalithic tomb to make its appearance on the Irish landscape was the wedge tomb, a relatively simple structure when compared with earlier tombs. This is a late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age burial chamber, consisting of a long, narrow, sub-rectangular chamber, built with stone slabs, often narrowing and declining in height towards the back (hence the name), and with a slab roof. Of 576 examples in the country, thirty-seven are located in County Mayo, chiefly in the eastern section.

There are seventy known unclassified tombs in County Mayo, where the surviving structure is so badly damaged to make exact identification impossible, with their main distribution along the north coast and the Moy valley.

Neolithic Field Systems and Structures

The blanket bog which covers parts of Ireland developed from late in the third millennium BC onwards and eventually covered the field systems, habitation-sites and tombs of some early farmers. This pre-bog landscape is being revealed in modern times as the peat is cut away. Extensive pre-bog field systems, with long stretches of stone walls, have been discovered in many parts of Ireland, but most notably at Behy, Glenulra and Belderg in north Mayo.

Extensive excavations were carried out in this area by Dr Seamas Caulfield since the 1960s and later by others. Considerable evidence of human activity has been discovered on the prehistoric landscape under the bog. This region, known as the Céide Fields, contains a 1,500-hectare archaeological site and is the most extensive Stone Age monument in the world. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and other artefacts from the site has returned Neolithic dates. The Céide Fields Visitors’ Centre was opened in May 1993 by the Office of Public Works with considerable local support. Evidence of Neolithic communities was found at Lowpark, near Charlestown, during excavations for the local bypass.

Bronze Age (Copper Age 2400-2200BC; Bronze Age c2200-600BC)

New settlers began to arrive in Ireland after the Neolithic Age, and started to make objects out of copper and later from bronze and gold. Several different types of objects were made, such as axe-heads, spear-heads, halberds, daggers and various ornaments, examples of which can be seen in the National Museum of Ireland.

In addition to the wedge tombs, the chief field monuments from the Bronze Age which decorate the landscape today are cist graves, standing stones, stone circles, stone alignments and what are believed to be ancient cooking-sites. A common type of burial found under a mound or cairn is a cist: ‘a box-like structure of stone slabs’. Cist type burials, with both cremated remains and inhumations, have been discovered in several places in Mayo.

Other types of burial sites from this period are the ring barrow and bowl barrow, the former a low circular mound, generally level at the top, enclosed by a fosse and an external bank, and the latter a structure resembling an upturned bowl. There are barrow clusters around Urlaur Lough, Mannin Lough, and at Magheraboy in Kilcolman parish. There are four ring barrows located in Carrowcloghagh, near Crossmolina. Nine ring barrows at Carrowjames, south of Belcarra village, were excavated in 1935-6 and contain at least forty-seven cremations.

A standing stone, a stone erected upright in the ground, may vary in height from less than a metre to about six metres. Excavation has revealed that some such stones mark prehistoric burials, usually small cist graves. Some may have been erected as boundary markers. Perhaps the best known standing stone in the county is ‘The Long Stone of the Neale’, situated before the turn for Cong on the Neale/Cong Road. Stone circles were used for ceremonial, ritual and/or burial purposes during the Bronze Age. They usually consist of free standing-stones placed erect in the ground to form a circle. Of the approximate 200 in Ireland, twenty-four are located in County Mayo. Sometimes a single stone stands outside, associated with, but not part of the circle, as at Dooncarton, near Pollatomish. An impressive collection of stone circles can be seen in close proximity in Glebe, Nymphsfield and Tonaleeaun, near Cong.

A stone alignment, or a stone row, is a straight line of three or more closely set standing-stones, which are generally low, often less than one metre in height. Their precise purpose is, as yet, unclear. It has been demonstrated that they are sometimes orientated towards major events in the solar and lunar cycles, for example, the summer or winter solstices. Of some 260 sites in the country, thirteen are located in County Mayo. There is a double stone alignment at Askillaun near Louisburgh, with another nearby containing a row of four stones at Killadangan, as well as the remains of yet another at Liscarney

During the Bronze Age, people lived in small communities with agriculture and stock-raising as their chief sources of livelihood. Several sites believed to be ancient cooking places, called fulachtaí fia (‘burnt mounds’), have been found in Ireland. A fulacht fia consists of a low earthen grass-covered mound, composed of small shattered fragments of burnt stone, intermingled with ash and charcoal. There is no agreement about their primary function, and the possibility of communal cooking does not exclude other uses. They are found in many parts of Ireland, especially the south, and are the most common prehistoric monument type in the Irish landscape, with over 6,000 recorded. There are over 380 recorded in County Mayo, with about 150 discovered by one man, Christy Lawless, in the parish of Turlough.

Early Iron Age (c.600 BC- AD 400)

The Celts are thought to have come to Ireland from Central and Western Europe sometime before 500BC, bringing with them skills in iron technology as well as (presumably) the distinctive Celtic language. Society in Ireland at that time was tribal and rural, with farming the chief source of livelihood. People lived in small thatched huts erected on crannóga in lakes and also in ringforts.

A crannóg was a lake dwelling erected on a platform built on a small, generally circular, artificial island in a lake or a marshy area. Crannóga date from the Late Bronze Age to the seventeenth century AD, but the majority belong to the Early Christian Period.There are about 1,200 crannóga known in Ireland, with 262 recorded for County Mayo – they can be seen in Loughs Beltra, Carra, Conn, Cullin, Urlaur and Mannin, and in numerous other smaller lakes.

Ringforts were habitation-sites of the more affluent Irish farmers, with most dated to the early medieval period. There are two broad classes of ringfort, an earthen fort, known as a ráth or lios, and a stone-built fort, known as a caiseal or cathair. The word dún is also applied to a fort, especially a promontory fort built on land naturally defended by cliffs on all but one side. A ringfort had a generally circular enclosure containing a farmer’s main dwelling and some out-buildings for storage and to house farm animals at night – to protect them from wild animals, and from cattle raiding which was common in early Ireland.

Ringforts are the most common type of archaeological monument in Ireland today, with over 45,000 recorded on maps. To date, a total of 288 stone-built, 1,527 earthen and 87 unclassified ringfort sites have been identified in County Mayo. There is a high density of ringforts in the south of the county, especially in the Ballinrobe-Kilmaine areas, as well as in east Mayo, with thirteen in the townland of Tullanacorra, near Swinford, over 130 in Killasser, and a considerable number around Ballyhaunis. A large trivallate ringfort, with the ruin of a possible fourth bank, known as Lios na dTréan Dubh, is located in the townland of Ballymartin, Kilmainemore parish. Rausakeera, a bivallate ringfort in the same parish, was the inauguration site of the chiefs of the Mayo Burkes. Several more ringforts are located around Clew Bay.

Eighty-eight coastal and six inland promontory forts are recorded in the Sites and Monuments Record for the county. In particular these forts can be found along the Mullet Peninsula and on Broad Haven, Achill Island and Clare Island as well as on a number at Loughs like Carra, Conn and Feeagh. Some have been damaged by erosion, notably the spectacular Dún Briste at Downpatrick Head near Ballycastle and Doonamona on the Mullet peninsula.

A souterrain is an underground structure, consisting of a low passage or passages, often with one or more chambers connected by creepways, and a narrow entrance at ground level. Irish souterrains belong to the later part of the first millennium AD. Among the uses to which souterrains could be put were as repositories for valuables and as places of temporary refuge from attack. As the souterrains maintained a constant cool temperature, regardless of the temperature above ground, they were also used as primitive cellars for storing foodstuffs, including dairy products, meat and corn, long before the advent of fridges. They are generally found in ringforts, and occasionally in isolation from any settlement sites.

Part 2 will cover the Early Christian/Historic Period (c.AD400-1100) thro' to the 1900s.

Bernard O'Hara's latest book entitled Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish is now on sale in the USA and UK as a paperback book at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk or Barnes and Noble

It is also available as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).

An earlier publication, a concise biography of Michael Davitt, entitled Davitt by Bernard O’Hara published in 2006 by Mayo County Council , is now available as Davitt: Irish Patriot and Father of the Land League by Bernard O’Hara, which was published in the USA by Tudor Gate Press (www.tudorgatepress.com) and is available from amazon.com and amazon.co.uk. It can be obtained as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader).