Turlough Hill

19/02/2025

Talk by Stefan Bergh on Turlough Hill research in Kilfenora Burren Heritage Centre 4th of May.
Not to be missed.

30/04/2016

Dag has been busy transfering our field survey onto the hillshade. See preliminary plan below just to give you an idea!!!!

30/04/2016

Please read Lorna Siggins article about our work in today's Irish Times. Link Below.
Brilliant cover image in Irish Times Online version showing Ritchie ready to get to grips with the cairn!!!!!!

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/burren-mountain-top-settlement-excavated-by-archaeologists-1.2629951

Evidence of 160 huts and two labyrinthine enclosures for spiritual or ritual gathering

29/04/2016

Day 14
LAST DAY!!!
Final bits of photography and drawing and then backfilling. Dag and Stefan surveyed a large extent of the ledges below the summit for additional hut sites to no avail. Not a single hut site similar to those on the summit to be found!
When both sites had been backfilled and we took a final coffee break away from the wind before heading down for the last time, there was a moment when we just sat there and felt that we just did not want to leave!!!!! We have just had such a great time up here!

The three weeks we worked on the summit has been a special and close to surreal experience, trying to understand this place that once must have been full of people and activity. We have all been thinking and talking about the people who once were here, who built the houses, who revered the burial cairn and who maybe gathered in the huge enclosure.at a distance to the east.
What drove them to come here? Even though the views are breath taking it takes more than that to invest the huge amount of labour that went into building some 160 houses up here!

So, are we any closer to understanding this place and its people when walking down today compared to that rainy day three weeks ago when we started the 45 min walk uphill? Absolutely! Besides the detailed knowledge of four of their houses through the excavations, the survey work of all the houses on the summit has given us an overall connection with the remains up here which is invaluable! But foremost our collective experience of the site and our discussions while up there have created a huge amount of information that will be critical to our interpretations of the mountain and its past people!!!

Finally a comment has to be made regarding the crew! Even though the physical conditions now and then have been challenging it has honestly been a pure pleasure to work with such an extraordinary positive, focused and enjoyable group of people!!!! Thank you all for making it such a great experience.

(This page is of course not going away just because the field work has ended - so be prepared for more to come before long).

Pic 1. Yes, that is a wheelbarrow slowly making its way up Turlough Hill!!!!!!
Pic. 2 Backfilling in full swing!
Pic. 3 A very happy team after completing what we came for!!!! From left: Dag, Damhnait, Aileen, Stefan, Ros, Mary, Margaret, Ritchie and Noel.

29/04/2016

Day 13,5
Yes, Dag and I really tried to nail that elusive multi-vallate, labyrintish enclosure which consists of a series of more or less detectablee, very low banks of limestone gravel with the odd slab.
We also had a visit by Angela Gallagher from the Department of archaeology, NUIG, Angela brought a very nice carrot cake!
Pic. 1 Dag and Stefan trying to make sense of that multi-vallate enclosure
Pic. 2 This is what it looks like!!!! About 40m across. Just a completely bizarre site! The banks do not seem to represent vastly different stages, as most of them are of the same character and size, so no evident overlaps If anyone has something similar in their backyard, please let us know!!!!!
Pic. 3 Angela Gallagher, well prepared for the changing weather on the summit.
Pic.4 Ritchie's excellent grike tools!
Pic. 5 This is just such a beautiful and dramatic place!!!!

27/04/2016

Day 13
Very cold today!!
Delighted by a visit of Michael John Connolly who is one of the three owners of the summit of Turlough Hill. A great man and a very proud owner of this fantastic place. Just to listen to him talking about this mountain which he knows as the back of his hand, is a true pleasure and explores the essence of what landscapes are about!
We are so grateful to him, and to Mr Flaherty and Mr O'Dea, who gave us permission to work on their land.
Stefan and Dag finally got around to plan the 'multi-vallate enclosure', which must be one of the strangest prehistoric remains ever recorded on this island!!!! Image in coming post.....

26/04/2016

Day 12
Excavations are slowly coming to a close. Still not too many finds from the in all four house sites we have excavated!!!! Well, to be perfectly honest we have not yet found a single piece of prehistoric tools or debris in any of the houses. As Ros maintains: "At least it says something". But we have not really been able to put the finger on what it says..... Some good suggestions will however be made soon after Thursday, when we finish.

Today we had a very welcomed visit by Prof. David Drew who shared his extraordinary useful insights on karst and set our houses in their geological setting.
The survey of the houses on the summit was concluded today by Stefan and Dag. Some 167 sites recorded and ground proofed!!! Not all of them houses, but not far from!!! The weather today was biting cold, especially during the hailstorms.... Very strong winds all day made us all long for a hot whiskey in front of the fire....

Pic 1 David Drew teaching us a thing or two about grikes!
Pic. 2 Dag Hammar seeking shelter in one of the houses
Pic. 3 NUIG MA students Kiaran Moylan and Richard Long came to visit us today. It looks sunny and it is sunny, BUT COLD!!!!
Pic. 4 Nicely built wall foundation in one of the eastern huts.
Pic.5 Not a symbol of the prevailing faith but the spectacular wind shelters for cattle and sheep in the Burren.

23/04/2016

Day 10
We have got a hearth!!
Another excellent day on the hill. The quarried 'pit' in the centre of the western hut at the east site turned out to be a hearth! Absolutely great for dating purposes. Still not too many artefacts, tools, lithic debris or bones found in any of the four huts excavated........
Martin Byrne, representing the Standing Committee for Archaeology, RIA, made a visit and brought sufficient supply of cookies!

21/04/2016

Day 9
Working hard trowelling down the extended sections in both sites. Dag and Stefan's planning of all the house foundations on the summit completed today. Some 160 of them. Also surveyed small cairns on lower ledge just of the summit. Eight tiny cairns all along the edge of the ledge.
Great weather but windy.

21/04/2016

One of the many small cairns on lower ledge just North of the summit.

21/04/2016

Day 9
Western site. Mary cleaning up southern wall. Note serious karst underneath wall.
Olive, Chelsea, Noel and Mary working away. Note very different wallfoundation in front of Noel!

21/04/2016

Day 9
Ritchie and Deanna starting on the massive western wallfoundation. Note the amount of slabs stacked on the outside!