Excavating in the Wilds of County Donegal

By Stephen A. Brighton

This is the first year the summer program of the Center for the Study of Rural Ireland, under the direction of Dr. Stephen A. Brighton (Assistant Professor, University of Maryland) and Dr. Charles E. Orser (Professor, Illinois State University), has conducted excavations in County Donegal. The excavation focused on stone cabins within Glenveagh National Park (Figure 1).

Figure 1 - A view of the glen looking towards Glenveagh Castle.

The park itself has a lengthy and significant history. Today, the focus of the park is the 19th-century manor house made to look like a medieval castle. The mansion was built for John George Adair. Adair used the house and extensive estate (roughly 30,000 acres) as part-time residence – mainly during the hunting season. He is infamous for his violent eviction and transportation of 241 people located in Derrybeagh located on the other side of the mountain of Glenveagh and Adair’s castle.

Prior to Adair's presence in the glen, the area was inhabited by the MacSweeny family as early as the 17th century. The area under investigation this year is believed to have been the cluster of family cabins (known as a clachan). The cabins were noted by a traveler to the glen – Cesar Otway in 1822. The MacSweenys were evicted from Glenveagh by 1830.

The remnants of three of the MacSweeny cabins remain today and are the focus of the 2006 field school season. At this point two of the three cabins have been excavated and most of the interior of both cabins has been uncovered. The students have uncovered many of the interior features of the cabins, including a cobble floor and interior drains (Figure 2). The artifacts recovered include many mass produced ceramic plates and tea cups, as well as clothing buttons and glass bottle sherds (Figure 3, 4). Aside from learning the methods of excavation and mapping, this year students are learning how to survey using a total station (Figure 5, 6).

Images from the Field School

Figure 2. A view of the cobbling floor of one of the stone cabins.

Figure 3. Ceramic sherds recovered from the stone cabins.

Figure 4. Glass bottle recovered from the interior of a stone cabin.

Figure 5. Michelle McNeal recording the elevation of artifacts recovered from the excavation units within a cabin.

Figure 6. Michelle McNeal, Erin Wingfield (University of Maryland students), and field supervisor Julie Ritcho (University College, Dublin) excavating in the front yard of the cabins.