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| 23 Oct 2007 01:25:00 pm |
 NSNF – Innismurray |
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NSNF – Innismurray
Innismurray Monastic Site, Co. Sligo
Environment
Inishmurray Island is located in a coastal, rural environment, approximately 8 km off the coast of Co. Sligo. It has been uninhabited since 1948. The island is mainly composed of sandstone cliffs and wave-cut platforms except at the northern extremity where the foreshore is composed of a cobble beach. The vegetation of the island is mainly low grasses and the archaeological structures are exposed to Atlantic storms. The island is suffering from ongoing coastal erosion.
The cashel, church and associated ecclesiastical remains are spread throughout the island with a concentration around the cashel. The nature of the environment is very exposed, however, the monuments within the cashel are sheltered by the rise of the cashel walls. The nearest road is on the mainland, approximately 8 km to the east. The ecclesiastical complex includes cross slabs, tombstones, cashel, cells, churches, altars, cursing stones and associated structures.
Innismurray Cashel and monastic buildings.
Stone: Sandstone (99%)
The monuments on Innismurray were built with the local sandstone. This is a light brown to cream, occasionally white and reddish, medium-grained sandstone occasionally showing graded and cross bedding, micaceous bedding planes and natural fractures. The geological source for this material is the local Mullaghmore Sandstone formation aged Carboniferous. Natural outcrops of this sandstone can be seen at the landing place to the west of the island. Here, the sandstone is well-bedded in thick beds or strata and exhibit a variety of internal sedimentary structures which also appear in the monuments. These include graded and cross bedding, convolution, erosional channels and micaceous planar acumulations. Extensive fractures run perpendicular to the bedding, breaking the strata in more manageable blocks which are easier to quarry. The sandstone can be classified as an argillaceous sandstone. It consists of abundant detrital quartz and feldspar, and lesser amounts of muscovite embedded in an abundant argillaceous matrix. The sandstone also possesses ferruginous cement.
Decay
The most common decay forms affecting the sandstone on Inishmurray are fracturing, differential erosion, scaling, flaking and biological colonisation. The opening up of natural fractures and fracturing across bedding were often noted. Differential erosion along the bedding planes was also common. Biological colonisation by lichen tends to be strong mainly in the interior walls and protected structures inside the cashel. Microscopically, the quartz grains are little affected. The feldspar are usually weathered to clay minerals and sporadically fractured along cleavage planes. The clay matrix weathers by the breakdown and eluviation of clay minerals. Segregation and oxidation of iron was also noticed. The iron cements are filling spaces between grains and partially replacing quartz and feldspar grains. The iron has occassionaly crystallized as euhedral hematite replacing quartz grains, mica or clay matrix. |
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Category : sites
| Posted By : David |  Comments[37] |  Trackbacks [0] |
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| 23 Oct 2007 01:23:56 pm |
| NSNF - The Céide Fields, Co. Mayo |
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NSNF - The Céide Fields, Co. Mayo
The Céide Fields are the oldest known field systems in the world, over five and a half millennia old. It is a unique Neolithic landscape of world importance, which has changed our perception of our Stone Age ancestors. The remains of stone field walls, houses and megalithic tombs are preserved beneath a blanket of peat over several square miles. They tell a story of the everyday lives of a farming people, their organized society, their highly developed spiritual beliefs, and their struggle against a changing environment beyond their control.
The discovery of what is now known as Céide Fields really began back in the 1930s when a local schoolteacher, Patrick Caulfield from Belderrig, often noticed piles of stones in the bottom of the bog when cutting his turf. To everybody else these were meaningless but he realised two very important points - firstly, the way the stones were piled up couldn't be natural so somebody had to put them there, and secondly, because they were down underneath the peat they had to be put there prior to the growth of the bog and so must be very ancient.
It was however to be another 40 years and only when this man's son, Seamus, became an archaeologist and began studying these stones in the bogs that it was realised what they were all about. It is now known that these are the remains of a Stone Age landscape of stone walled fields, houses and megalithic tombs over 5,000 years old, preserved beneath the growing blanket bog over thousands of acres in North Mayo.
The continuing research, involving the location and mapping of these hidden walls by a specially developed simple and completely non-destructive method of probing with iron rods, and excavation of habitation sites and tombs is yielding a unique picture of the way of life of our ancestors 200 generations ago. We now know that they were a highly organised large peaceful community of farmers who worked together on clearing hundreds of acres of forestry and dividing the land into regular field systems. Their main economy was cattle rearing but they were skilled craftspeople and builders in both wood and stone and also had strong spiritual beliefs. |
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Category : sites
| Posted By : David | Comments[42] | Trackbacks [0] |
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| 23 Oct 2007 01:23:15 pm |
| NSNF - Creevykeel Court Cairn, Co. Sligo |
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NSNF - Creevykeel Court Cairn, Co. Sligo
Description
Creevykeel Court Cairn consists of a wedge-shaped cairn, dating from between 3500 and 2500 BC, with a burial chamber opening directly opposite the entrance to the central court. The burial chamber is orientated longitudinally in relation to the cairn. The narrow end of the cairn shows two other graves. Creevykeel is classified as a full-court tomb and shows a low line of kerbstones around the exterior of the cairn, with larger orthostats lining the court. The burial chamber is approached through a massive lintelled doorway. The central court also shows an iron smelting area from the Early Christian period. The cairn is orientated north-west to south-east.
Stone: Sandstone (100%)
The cairn was built with a local sandstone. This is a light brown to cream, occasionally white and reddish, medium-grained sandstone sporadically displaying sedimentary structures and natural fractures. Sedimentary structures include graded and cross bedding, micaceous bedding planes and natural fractures.
The sandstone can be classified as an argillaceous sandstone. It consists of abundant detrital quartz and feldspar, and lesser amounts of muscovite embedded in an abundant argillaceous matrix with some ferruginous cement. The geological source for this material is the local Mullaghmore Sandstone formation of the Carboniferous Age. |
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Category : sites
| Posted By : David | Comments[40] | Trackbacks [0] |
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