Site Overview

Lough Gur

Lough Gur is a small horseshoe-shaped lake nestled among limestone hills in south-eastern Limerick (view map). Over 30 ancient sites and monuments can be found around its shores today, ranging in date from Neolithic to Medieval times, and many more may originally have been present. Such continuity and reuse of landscape echoes the overall pattern of human occupation in Ireland during this time.

Lough Gur’s monuments include stone circles, dwelling-places, field systems, standing stones, ringforts, crannogs, castles, and a megalithic tomb. However, Lough Gur may be most important for what it reveals about late Neolithic/early Bronze Age settlement and ritual sites (O’Kelly 1985).
In 1912 Sir Bertram Windle made a

survey of the sites at Lough Gur, designating them by letters of the alphabet. Excavations began in 1936 under the direction of Seán P. Ó Ríordáin. He worked in this area until 1941 and resumed his work once again in 1947. However, his death in 1957 caused many of the Lough Gur excavations to go unpublished even to this day (O’Kelly 1985).

Knockadoon Peninsula
The Knockadoon peninsula juts out between the lake’s two arms, which in earlier times may have joined to make Knockadoon an island. Two castles guard the points of easiest access to the peninsula: Bourchier’s Castle in the north and Black Castle in the south. Nine habitation sites were found in this area, as well as a number of stone circles (O’Kelly 1985). Knockadoon saw continuous occupation from Neolithic into Bronze Age times. Neolithic houses were both round and rectangular, and they were organized around a central hearth. Postholes suggest that the rectangular huts were divided into three sections. The central area with the hearth would have been used for daytime activities, while the outer segments were used for sleeping and storage. In the Bronze Age, oval huts were built. The settlement sites at Lough Gur are of the same pattern that is seen across Ireland and in Britain (Zaczek 2000).

House Site A is the only one still visible from the ground. It is rectangular, divided into three sections, and had a central hearth (Figure 1). At 9.7x6m it is large in comparison to other houses of the time. The walls had a stone foundation and were delineated by two rows of postholes about 1.3m apart. The walls were likely made

from organic material such as sod. Two additional rows of internal postholes running lengthwise probably formed part of the roof supports. The structure would have had a thatched roof, and its entrance was in the southwest corner. Neolithic pottery and stone tools were found (Forde-Johnston 1976; Herity and Eogan 1996).

House Site C is now visible only as a grassy knoll; however, excavation uncovered three small circular houses within an enclosing stone wall; they have been dated to the Neolithic period.

Each hut was delineated by two concentric rings of postholes, about 1m apart. The space between these rings would have been filled with mud to form the structure’s walls. The huts had an average diameter of 6m and contained one or more rubbish pits next to the central hearth. Postholes were scattered throughout the interior of the house, suggesting timber supports for the thatched roof (Figure 2). Neolithic and

Bronze Age (Beaker) pottery was found, as well as various stone tools (Forde-Johnston 1976; O’Kelly 1985; Waddell 1998).

Circle J is 30m in diameter and is formed by two concentric rings of standing stones, 1.2m apart. In the north it utilizes the natural landscape in its conformation—here, a hill slope forms part of the circle (Figure 3). Many human skeletons were found at Circle J, and according to Ó Ríordáin, it was likely used as a cemetery. It has a small standing stone in the southeast quadrant, near which child burials were found. There is no identifiable entrance, and it has not been dated (O’Kelly 1985).

Circle K, the largest circle on Knockadoon, is located 100m northwest of Circle J. It has an overall diameter of 31m and is made up of two concentric rings (1.2m apart) of more or less adjoining stones. The tallest stone is 1.2m high, but many are much smaller. The entrance is located in the east, and excavation revealed rock-cut postholes that probably held the jambs of a wooden gate of some sort. The presence of a gate suggests that the rings were only part of the original enclosing structure, for one could easily enter it by stepping over the orthostats. These stones may actually have been the inner and outer linings of a taller earthen bank. In the center of the enclosure was a rectangular building, outlined by rock-cut postholes (Figure 4). These features suggest that Circle K may have been a

domestic ring fort, not a ritual stone circle. The pottery found here dates the site to the late Neolithic/early Bronze Age (O’Kelly 1985).

Carraig Aille Hill
This hill is located to the east of the lake and Knockadoon. Two stone ring-forts (cashels), along with associated hut sites, were discovered here. Occupation has been dated to the 8th-11th centuries AD. House foundations were discovered both within and outside the forts. Bronze, iron, and stone tools were uncovered, along with some jewelry and bone implements.

Carraig Aille I is on the north side of the hill, and its dry-stone wall encloses an oval area, 42.6x32m. The entrance looks towards the east; recesses in the entryway suggest that a wooden door was present. Steps leading up to the top of the wall were found at two points within the enclosure, and a parapet-walk would have been present. Carraig Aille II is located about 43m to the southeast and has an overall diameter of 47m. A paved pathway leads from the entrance in the east through the interior of the fort towards where small huts had been built on the western side. Steps leading up to the parapet-walk were

found at six points along the rampart (Figure 5). It appears that defensive structures became less vital as time went on, and the upper part of the wall on the north side of the fort was torn down, possibly to facilitate interaction between the cashel and the houses outside of it (Evans 1966; O’Kelly 1985).

The Wedge Tomb
This megalithic monument is located on the southeast edge of the lake, somewhat up the slope of a hill. It measures 9.6x7m overall, and its walls are made up of two rows of orthostats with rubble in between them. Like other wedge tombs, it is roofed by slabs resting directly on the side stones, and it slightly narrows and decreases in height from the entrance towards the small chamber in the rear.

The tomb is orientated northeast- southwest, with the entrance facing the northeast. A large slab at the southwestern end divides the monument into two chambers (Figure 6). One cremation burial was found in a cist in the small rear chamber. In addition, twelve inhumation burials were discovered in the main gallery. Grave goods were mostly sherds of beaker and Neolithic pottery, with some food-vessel sherds as well. This megalith is fairly

typical of wedge tombs in the south of Ireland. Like the tomb at Labbacallee, Co. Cork, it lies on the larger end of the spectrum at around 9m in length. While no date has been suggested for this monument, wedge tombs are typically associated with the Bronze Age (Evans 1966; Herity and Eogan 1996; Waddell 1998).

Grange Stone Circle
Located 300m west of Lough Gur is Grange, one of the most impressive stone circles in Ireland. Its near perfect shape, together with a posthole found in the very center of the enclosure, indicates that the circle was measured out from a central stake with a rope. The ring is made up of 113 contiguous standing stones, with an internal diameter of approximately 46m.

An earthen bank stands outside the circle of orthostats and forms a backing for them; it is 9m in width and about 1.2m tall. There is no ditch, and so material for the bank was probably scraped from the surface of the surrounding area. Twelve large orthostats have been placed at intervals around the stone ring; each slab stands directly opposite one of the other “axial” stones. Two of these orthostats flank the entrance to the circle on the northeast side. A narrow stone-lined passage leads to this entranceway through the surrounding embankment (Figure 7). The entrance

stones are matched by a pair of equally impressive slabs on the southwest side, whose tops slope down towards each other to form a v-shape. It has been calculated that these stones and the entranceway were aligned with the sunset on the festival of Samain in early November. The largest of the axial stones, dubbed Rannach Croim Duibh (the prominent black stone), stands slightly north of the entryway and looks toward the midsummer sunrise. A thick layer of gravel and clay was laid down as a floor inside the ring. No structures were found, but excavators did discover two hearths, a few unburnt human bones, some animal bones (mainly cattle), abundant lithic technology, some bronze materials, and numerous Neolithic pottery sherds. The enclosure would have been built in stages, and a date around 2000BC has been determined. This places use of the monument from the late Neolithic through the Bronze Age (Burl 1995; O’Kelly 1985; Waddell 1998).

While Grange corresponds with other Irish stone circles in that it lacks a ditch, it is unique in most other aspects. Its orthostats are contiguous rather than free-standing, and the surrounding bank makes it look more like a form of henge monument than a conventional stone circle. This embankment and the precise arrangement of orthostats suggest that this site had a ritual purpose. In fact, parallels have been drawn to some of Britain’s ritual henges, such as

Woodhenge, that likewise align their features with solar and lunar events. It is unlikely that Grange was roofed over as Woodhenge probably was. However, Grange represents an analogous ritual space and suggests a high degree of social organization for those who built and utilized it (Forde-Johnston 1976; O’Kelly 1985).