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Ballacarnane Beg Roundhouse

Archaeology

An Iron Age defended enclosure or "Roundhouse" which is seen to best effect on the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 large scale mapping of 1868, but has since been deminished by ploughing.  It is nevertheless still visible in the field as a low, grass-covered circular earthwork platform surrounded by a shallow ditch.


When examined in the 1950s the outer ring of the defences was about 65 metres in diameter. Part of the outer ditch survived and was up to 13.0 metres wide and 0.5 metres deep from its outer lip. There was a fragment of outer bank 4.0 metres wide and 0.3 metres high on the northeastern side of the earthwork.  To the southeast, traces of a 20.0 metre length of the inner slope of the original bank survived mid-way between the outer ditch and the central platform but only to a height of 0.1 metres. The circular, central platform had a diameter of 24.0 m and a maximum height of 0.6 metres.


The site has been compared to Ballacagen, but unlike the latter site is not set in a marsh.

Connections

Book Chapters

  • Parish: Michael
  • Sheading: Michael
  • Grid Ref: SC2971088550

Sources

  • Isle of Man Heritage Environment Record
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