A team of archaeologists was looking for the ruins of Derrygonnelly Castle in County Fermanagh, Ireland.
“They had initially been searching for the ruins of 400-year-old Derrygonnelly Castle in Fermanagh, during a two-week community excavation,” Queen’s University Belfast said in a news release this fall.
The castle was “erased from the landscape in the early 19th century,” so “people are largely unaware of its existence,” said Professor Eileen Murphy in the release for the university. “The excavation raised awareness of this important site and made many new prehistoric discoveries that will ensure Derrygonnelly is mentioned in future archaeological textbooks.”
The archaeologists didn’t find the castle, but they found something else remarkable. “To their surprise, they uncovered artefacts dating back to the Mesolithic period,” the release says.
“We are absolutely delighted with what we’ve been able to uncover during the excavation – it is mind-blowing,” said Murphy, in the release. “With the help of almost 250 school children and 35 volunteers, we found much more than we ever imagined.”
She explained: “We found lots of 17th-century material remains, including imported pottery from England, fragments of clay pipe, building materials and a possible William and Mary ½ penny. We also found a 17th-century ditch that was potentially a temporary defensive feature when the castle was being built.”
Another find was “hugely exciting and unexpected,” according to the release. And that was “finds of flint and chert tools of Early Mesolithic date from around 9,000 years ago.”
The Professor Says That Hunter-Gatherers ‘Probably Had a Seasonable Camp There’
Murphy was able to glean information about the ancient humans’ lives.
“We now know that hunter-gatherer people were actually living at this location and probably had a seasonal camp there. That is very exciting!” she said in the release. “We also found evidence of a prehistoric round house, which dates to the Early Bronze Age period, around 4,000 years. We know this because we found a large fragment of diagnostic pottery at the base of one of the post-holes of the house.”
Cllr Barry McElduff, Chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, said in the release:
H “It was inspiring to see local volunteers and schoolchildren working side by side with archaeologists, carefully uncovering fragments of our past. Each discovery – whether pottery, glass, or flint – adds another layer to the story of this place and the people who lived here centuries ago.”
Over the last two years, “eight excavations have been led by the Community Archaeology Programme Northern Ireland (CAPNI) and funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund,” the release says.
“These have taken place in counties Antrim, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone. In addition to these fieldwork projects, the programme has continued to deliver a broad range of community engagement initiatives, including CAPNI school hubs, public festivals, guided walking tours, field surveys, and the Open Learning Lecture Series,” it adds. “Collectively, these activities have facilitated engagement with nearly 14,000 participants across Northern Ireland, significantly contributing to the promotion, engagement and understanding of local archaeology and heritage.”
