Tag Archives: Caherconnell

AN American apprentice archaeologist, who flew in from Ohio to participate in the archaeological dig at Quin Friary earlier this week, has uncovered the first artefact, a clay pipe that dates back to 1628. Jenny Sacher from Cleveland, Ohio, has worked with archaeologists Joe McCooey and Graham Hull previously at Caherconnell and when she heard that they would be conducting a dig at the well-known historical site in Quin, she offered to volunteer. Mr McCooey said the find was made in trench one, where they believe there are remnants of a road and house. “It is a very small old-fashioned clay pipe. The size of the bowl suggests the date. Clay pipes are very well documented and we can narrow them down through the years in a sequence. We have drawings of other clay pipes that we take our references from and we found that pipe in the sequence and that’s how we got the 1628 date. We only have …

EXCAVATIONS at Caherconnell are revealing some interesting practices undertaken by Ireland’s early Christians, according to Dr Michelle Comber, director of The Caherconnell Archaeological Field School at Carron. “It is traditionally accepted that Christianity arrived in Ireland some time before the middle of the fifth century AD. You might be forgiven, then, for assuming that Christianity and Christian practices could be found throughout Ireland within a century or two of this date,” she said revealing that recent excavations by the Caherconnell Archaeology Field School are proving otherwise. “It was discovered in the summer of 2013 that Caherconnell cashel or ‘caher’ (a circular drystone enclosure containing dwelling houses and other domestic structures) had been deliberately constructed over the top of an earlier burial mound. This small mound covered two limestone cists. Although disturbed at one end, their contents were still present. The smaller of the two cists contained the remains of a young child, between one and two years of age, and …