Ulster Archaeological Society Excavations at the Dorsey, County Armagh Author(s): Declan P. Hurl, Cormac McSparron and Gill Plunkett Source: Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Third Series, Vol. 63 (2004), pp. 41-51 Published by: Ulster Archaeological Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20568336 Accessed: 02-04-2019 06:39 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Ulster Archaeological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Ulster Journal of Archaeology This content downloaded from 143.117.116.248 on Tue, 02 Apr 2019 06:39:02 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Ulster Journal of Archaeology. Vol 63. 2004 EXCAVATIONS AT THE DORSEY, COUNTY ARMAGH DECLAN P HURL* & CORMAC McSPARRON** Environment & Heritage Service, Department of the Environment [email protected]. uk **Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University, Belfast [email protected] with an appendix by GILL PLUNKETT An excavation was carried out at the Dorsey, Co Armagh, in the summer of 2002 by the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, on behalf of the Environment and Heritage Service: Built Heritage. The excavation uncovered two palisade trenches approximately 30 m west of, and running approximately parallel to, Bonds Road where it runs through the Dorsey. Between, and later than, the two palisade trenches was a roasting pit and the possible remains of a flimsy shelter. Running beside and parallel to the west side of the road were the remains of a shallow ditch with a further palisade trench cut into its west edge, as well as a shallow linear gully and a pit. Radiocarbon dating suggests that these features date to the Early Iron Age. INTRODUCTION townlands of Dorsy and Tullynavall. The remains are The Dorsey (SMR ARM 28:8) is a substantial most substantial at the south-east and south-west earthwork of Iron Age date, composed of a series of corners, where the embankments are up to 6.6 m in embankments of varying size enclosing an irregular height and the ditch is up to 6.6 m deep and 13 m wide trapezoid area a maximum of 1.8 km long and 0.5 km (Tempest 1930, 200-203); the northern remains are wide (Fig 1). It is located approximately 5 km north less extensive. At its north-eastern and south-western east of Crossmaglen in the south of Co Armagh extremities the earthwork encloses elevated ground (centred on IGR H9456 1935), straddling the above 120 m OD. Although the embankments are not, if \ *8?.*-* >V DAVIES 1940a. ..J) I *\ > ^^ftpAVIES 1940a Q V^'' 'I. -" ' CENTRAL BOG l-7, \ ,^>^ // '/ 1 '"V' .--. ' ""--"* '"" ""* u,'"'" ,'"4' EXTRACTION cores 2002 ?-g?- OF ^?t\\rW s-SSgmK '' \' ?"' i'i \ ""*--'* /'^" " -,|^\?i;"" " " ,;^ dames/ YJk ?i DAVIES 1940b ^^ '""/'J ^&k .'^^ 1938 : \k \? QWIESIMO? ^^^ ^^ J ^^ ?&< . / IHi -JSS_^_\_^?J^^J^^ " .. 0 * 1KM Fig 1 Plan of the Dorsey showing locations of excavations on the monument. 41 This content downloaded from 143.117.116.248 on Tue, 02 Apr 2019 06:39:02 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms and may never have been, completely continuous, a the ditch dating to the wars of the late 16th century. No number of sections which are not traceable today were post-holes were discovered on this side (Davies 1938, formerly perceptible, and there is evidence that its line 131-4). had been continued by piling through wetland areas In 1939 Davies continued his programme of work (Tempest 1930). at the north of the monument, investigating an area At its south-west corner the Dorsey encloses a where the modem road runs through the north rampart standing stone (Arm 28:23) known by a number of and ditch. A section of the ditch was excavated, names, such as the White Stone, Cloghfin, Caillagh revealing a flat-bottomed ditch with sloping sides and Biorra and Cloghameathair. The central portion of the two fills; a lower fill of probable antiquity containing monument is a wetland area which local informants fragments of worked wood, and an upper fill of 18th relate as having been much reduced by peat cutting century date. Trenches on either side of the modem and drainage within living memory; corroboration of road showed that there was no causeway across the this information is given by Tempest (1930). The ditch at this point, meaning either that this was not the Dorsey River runs through the monument, while the original line of the Bealach Mor na Feadha, or that the Ummeracam River runs up to the earthwork at its road was carried by a bridge across the ditch. He south-east corner (the South Gate) before turning and postulated that the passage through the north section running north. of the monument could lie to the east, the modem road The name 'Dorsey' or 'Dorsy' has been applied not diverging sharply from its original path to run further just to the monument and townland but also generally west. Although he opened a small trench at the north to a strip of land, about 1.6 km east-west and 8 km east comer of the Dorsey to test the relationship north-south, along which ran the Bealach Mor na between the enclosure proper and the apparent Feadha, the traditional road south from Emain Macha, extension which runs to the Ummeracam River, the or Navan Fort, which is locally identified with the outbreak of Second World War prevented any modern road known as the Old Coach Road which ran recording of this trench (Davies 1940a, 283-4). from Dundalk to Armagh (Tempest 1930, 190), now In 1938 and 1939, after excavating a number of called Bonds Road. trenches at the south-west of the Dorsey, just to the west of the standing stone, Davies confirmed the Previous archaeological investigations at the Dorsey original presence of the rampart as well as a line of There have been a number of archaeological piles running in an approximately north-east direction investigations at the Dorsey. Surveys were carried out and wedged in place by stones and logs. Davies and descriptions written from the 17th to 19th believed that, in this area, the Dorsey consisted of a centuries, the results obtained from much of this work double bank with no excavated ditch, the natural being synthesized by Tempest in 1930. properties of the bog undertaking that function During the course of the 20th century research at the (Davies 1940a, 284-7). At the west of the Dorsey, Dorsey has continued. Oliver Davies conducted where the Black Pig's Dyke and the Dorsey appear to extensive investigations of the monument. In 1938 he intersect, he uncovered the line of the dyke and its excavated at the South Gate area, close to the site of the apparent junction with the Dorsey. This convinced him 2002 excavation. He initially opened a number of that the two monuments were contemporary trenches on top of the inner rampart to search for signs earthworks (Davies 1940b, 33-4). of a palisade, but found no evidence for this. He then The next phase of archaeological investigations at excavated at the gap through which the Old Coach Road the Dorsey was undertaken by Chris Lynn in 1977 runs, discovering two lines of post-holes on the east when he excavated at two sites (Lynn 1992). Site A side. One line, approximately 10 m long, was 'set in a was at the point where Bonds Road runs through the slight trench' flanking the causeway (Davies 1938, northern rampart, and Site B was just to the west of the 131); the second line, also 'set in a shallow trench' and standing stone in the south-west comer of the Dorsey. of a similar exposed length, ran north-east from the At Site A, Lynn excavated a section across the ditch causeway before curving around to run north-west, and bank but did not fully bottom the ditch because of beneath the existing road, possibly acting as a deliberate the presence of a modem sewage pipe. He did, constriction to narrow the entrance of the monument however, recover charcoal from beneath the bank (ibid). In the field to the east of the road, immediately which produced dates ranging from the early 4th north of the inner ditch, he uncovered a series of post century BC to the early first century AD (Lynn 1992, holes and areas of paving which appeared to indicate 66). occupation. He interpreted one phase as the remains of During the excavation of Site A, Lynn's attention a round, post-built structure, approximately 4.5 m in was drawn to some timbers which had been uncovered diameter, which he suggested was similar to the guard during mechanical excavation at the south-west of the houses of Welsh hillforts. He also excavated on the west monument. This site, designated Site B, consisted of a side of the causeway, opening a trench through the outer stretch of palisade trench containing thirty oak posts ditch where he found a sherd of post-medieval pottery which averaged 0.2 m in diameter and which were which, he suggested, might be evidence of a re-cut of wedged in place by oak planks.