A History of Offaly Through its Monuments

The Copper And Bronze Ages In Offaly

The series of articles tracing the history of the county through its monuments, written by archaeologist, Caimin O'Brien, on behalf of Offaly Heritage Forum, in conjunction with the Tribune's Tadhg Carey, continues this week with the focus on the development of metal-working techniques in the Copper and Bronze Ages.

Offaly Bogs Reveal Wealth Of Bronze Age

Around 2500 BC, thanks to the emergence of copper axes, Irish society moved away from a stone age economy to a metal-working society. This new technology did not herald the immediate end of stone tools. Instead, humans gradually added these new metal artifacts to their existing set of stone implements.

Originally, it was believed that the advent of a new metal technology implied the arrival of a new people into Ireland, however, recently, this has been rejected and we now see it as part of a process of change in Irish society.

This change may have been influenced by contact through trade with other European tribes who were proficient in the use of copper. There is no substantial deposit of copper in Offaly with the nearest source located in the Silvermines/Rearcross area of Co. Tipperary. However, an important hoard, dated from the period, was found 10m below the surface of the bog at Kilcormac in 1879. Known as the Frankford Hoard, it contains an early example of a flat copper axe along with a small dagger and halberd (long blade mounted onto a shaft at a right angle). This new range of artefacts is a characteristic feature of the Copper Age and is in stark contrast to the stone tools of the earlier Neolithic period.

After this initial period of using copper on its own, the idea of mixing the metal ore with tin to produce bronze appears to have occurred around 2,000BC. This period is known to archaeologists as the Bronze Age and lasts from 2000BC until it is replaced by the Iron Age around 600BC. During this era, we see how a society changes from an agricultural economy with the large-scale communal tombs of the neolithic, to an elitist or hierarchical type society possibly based on a warrior aristocracy.
Offaly plays an important role in providing information on this new society from discoveries of artefacts and excavations of settlements within the new county.

As the Bronze Age started to evolve, so too did the Irish landscape with the appearance and growth of blanket bogs, probably in direct response to adverse effects that farming had on the soils of the country. As the bog began to grow, it started to cover the Bronze Age landscape. The process has been revealed over the last few centuries as the original landscapes have been exposed again during turf cutting and harvesting operations.

These bogs should be seen as one of the most important sources or repositories of information on our prehistoric past. The emergence of gold personal ornaments such as dress fasteners, lunulae, torcs, ear-rings and the appearance of musical trumpets and bronze weapons such as shields and swords has led archaeologists to speculate that, during this period, society saw the emergence of warrior aristocracy. Most of these items have been discovered in collections of artefacts found in wetland locations known as hoards. Several important hoards have been found in Offaly, the most famous of all being the Dowris Hoard. This was found in a bog at Whigsborough near Birr in the early nineteenth century.

The hoard contained the largest collection of bronze objects ever found in Ireland, including 26 bronze trumpets/horns, axes, a bronze bucket, bronze cauldron and numerous other artefacts which are now stored in the National Museum of Ireland and the British Museum.

Other important hoards from Offaly include a gold hoard found at Derrinboy bog, near Kilcormac and a hoard found at Meenwaun near Banagher, which contained a beautiful amber necklace. All of these finds illustrates the wealth of Bronze Age society.

It has been speculated that these hoards may represent a sacred ritual associated with the deposition of one's wealth into scared pools or wet places as an offering to the Gods. The objects from the hoards indicate that these people had contacts with other communities throughout Europe especially along the sea routes of the Atlantic Ocean, such as Spain, France and Britain.

Other possible sources of contact, including tribes from Northern Europe, have been suggested while the amber necklace suggests contacts either with the Baltic region or with areas rich in amber deposits such as Eastern Scotland, Northern Germany, Scandinavia and Holland. Along with this increased variety of artefacts, we also see the emergence of a more complex range of field monuments, possibly indicating a more complex society. The following are the main monuments which appear during the Bronze Age.

1. Standing Stones: These are single large upright stones often referred to locally as the King's Stone, Gallán or Long Stone. Their function is unclear but some have been shown to mark prehistoric burials, while others may have had a commemmorative or ritual function. It has also been suggested that they may have acted as markers of territorial boundaries.
   There are around a dozen extant standing stones listed in the Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly. Stones at Ballyburley (near Rhode) and Kilcreman (on the Laois/Offaly border close to Roscrea) are found close to nearby ring-barrows.

   A Burial Mound in the form of a ring barrow at teh rear with a standing stone in front at Kilcreman at the Laois/Offaly border.

2. Burial Mounds: Known as barrows, these are often earthen mounds which cover the interred remains of one or several burials contained within cists (flagstone box). When the covering mound is constructed from stone, archaeologists refer to these as cairns.
   Around 40 possible burial mounds and cairns have been identified in Offaly. Among the best examples are a ring barrow known as O'Dempsey's Ring at Ballykean near Raheen outside Geashill and another at Gorraun near Ballybritt.
3. Fulachta Fiadh or Burnt Mounds: Ancient cooking sites usually located on wet marshy land which very often have a horseshoe-shaped mound. This mound is formed from the waste debris of the cooking process. In order to cook food, a stone-lined or wooden trough was filled with water. This was brought to the boil by placing hot stones from a nearby fire into the water-filled trough. Once the water was boiling the meat was immersed into the water and cooked accordingly.
   When the trough was being cleaned out, the shattered stones and debris from the fire was heaped up around the trough and this is what gives the mound its characteristic horse shoe shape.
   An open area was kept clear in order to provide access from the trough to the nearby stream.
   Only a dozen or so such sites have been identified in Offaly, although, archaeologists believe many more are present, but undiscovered, in the county.
   There is a cluster of five fulachta fiadh to be found at Garr, in the north eastern corner of the county, close to the Offaly, Meath and Westmeath border area.
4. Rock Art is a term used to describe a series of linear lines, circles and cups often found carved into natural bedrock. A rock at Clonfinlough near Clonmacnoise has been suggested as having Bronze Age rock art carved on its surface.
5. Lake dwellings or lakeshore settlements have been discovered at Ballynahinch in Ballinderry Lough, close to Horseleap, and at Clonfinlough near Fin Lough Lake. Both of these sites have been excavated and were discovered to be Bronze Age settlements. The site at Clonfinlough consisted of a large palisaded enclosure containing circular houses which was well preserved beneath the bog.
   This site was excavated by the Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit and is one of the best preserved Bronze Age enclosures in Ireland. The site at Ballinderry, excavated in 1942, consisted of a timber platform, possibly the foundations of a timber house, on the shores of a Bronze Age lake and later covered by the bog.
6. Hilltop Enclosures and hillforts can be described as large circular areas enclosed by one or many earthen banks originally surmounted by a wooden palisade located on top of a hill in a prominent location with extensive views of the surrounding countryside. Aghancon hillfort near Roscrea is an excellent example of a hillfort, which may have its origins in the Bronze Age. It is possible that it may have acted as an importnat defensive enclosure or as an important centre for ritualistic activity associated with the religion of the people of the time.

Pictured is the hilltop enclosure at Cooraclevin near Barna, Dunkerrin, situated on the summit of a hill in upland terrain overlooking the Little Brosna.

7. Boulder burials consist of a large capstone resting on three small stones, somewhat similar to portal tombs. These are found mainly in southwest Ireland with one known example from Rearcross, Co. Tipperary. There are no known examples in Offaly.
8. Stone Alignments and Stone Circles: These appeared during the Bronze Age and appear to be associated with ritual ceremonies of this period. Stone alignments consist of three or more stones set closely together on a straight line. Their function is unclear and they may have had a role to play with the religious ceremonies of the time. Some people have suggested a solar function or an alignment with the setting or rising sun. Stone circles are closely set stones arranged in a circle, possibly for ceremonial or ritualistic purposes. Neither of these monument types are found in Co. Offaly.

All of these monuments indicate the increasing complexity and sophistication of Bronze Age society and offers an interesting parallel with a similar development in the personal artefacts of Bronze Age people. The introduction of metalworking appears to have introduced the concept of personal wealth, and possibly indicates the emergence of a ruling warrior aristocracy with a new complex religion.

The bogs in Co. Offaly have been central in revealing information about our prehistoric past. The discoveries of hoards have offered us an insight into the personal dress and daily lives of these people, while the enclosure at Clonfinlough has revealed the type of houses these people constructed over 3,500 years ago.

Reconstruction drawing of Clonfinlough as it might have looked.

More interesting discoveries in Offaly await the archaeologists, as Bord Na Mona pushes on with the development of the bogs in the coming years. This information will undoubtedly offer us a clearer and more accurate of what life was like in Bronze Age Offaly between 4,000 and 2,000 years ago.

Fairies, Folklore And Clonmacnoise

In the late 1930s the Irish Folklore Commission undertook a survey of Irish folklore by sending out a questionnaire to all the schools in Ireland. The survey collected all the folklore associated with each school's area and recorded the beliefs of the local people in relation to special places and monuments in their locality.

Below are two pieces of folklore collected from the Clonmacnoise area about the Clonfinlough stone and other peculiar stones in their area.

This survey gives us a glimpse of how the people of Offaly treasured their monuments and how they perceived them and what social role they played in the minds of the local people. According to the folklore survey, the Clonfinlough stone had images in the form of cross-men and loop-men carved onto the surface of the rock. This image puzzled many antiquarians for years until one Abbe Breuil deciphered the image and concluded that it represented a fight to a finish between the Old Irish and the Milesians in pre-Christian times, 1300BC. The cross-men were charging at the loop-men who in return were retreating from the attack.

He told the locals that there were many such stones in Spain. The story went on to say that they believed it was the oldest stone in Ireland and described it as "A stone that before Our Lord founded his apostolic church lay there enjoying the glorious sunshine in Summer and the rain leaving it as pure and white as the lily, in winter". Meanwhile, another story from the Clonmacnoise area records that there were two big rocks in a field which a local boy named Michael was continually playing around in the summer time. One summer day he was out playing as usual and he did not come in until dark. When he came in he began to tell his mother about a strange little boy he was playing with at the rocks.

He showed his mother a beautiful silver knife which he said he got from the little boy. When the mother saw the knife she was afraid to let him keep the knife and she made him go back to the rocks with her in order to return it. Michael left the knife on the rock and the next morning when he went out to play again, the knife was gone and he never saw the little boy again. It is said that the strange little boy was a fairy and he was trying to coax young Michael away. It is also said that another Michael will find the knife, and when he does he will find two big pots of gold under the rocks.

A ringwork located at Dungar close to Roscrea on the Kinnitty Road. It has been suggested that this is of Bronze Age origin and may have served as a ceremonial enclosure for ritual purposes, similar to a henge-type monument. The monument, which contains a large platform with internal fosse or ditch which fills with water in damp weather, was probably reused in the medieval period as an Anglo-Norman earthwork castle.