30 JOURNi\L OF THE COUNTY 'DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY. IV.-SHELL HEAPS These are distinguished from the other sites by the total absence of everything but shells, and a few traces of fires. l'Dhere are no implements except rude wedges of stone that could have been used for forcing open the shells. The absence of implements and hearths would go to show that these were not places of permanent abode, but rather a place where people came to coll!~ct shell-fish for consumption elsewhere. They are not nece.ssarily of any great antiquity and some are still in process of formation. When I was growing-up it was quite common for a few members from each of three or four families to join together for the pur.pose of going to the strand to collect "strand meat." They broug·ht with them a cart. turf to make fires, big pots for boiling the shells, and knives for pressing them open and scooptng out the contents, th? disused shells being left behind in a heap by the fireside on the shore. EXAMINATION OF SITES Caution is already necessary in the examination of any of thes~ sites. .The loose sand which covers the middens is easily blown aw~.y, and articles dropped on the surface and belonging to a much later period can sometimes fall down and get mixed with pre-historic implements in the midden. Early sites may have been re-occupied at considerably later periods, or again the site of a sand-hill settlement may have been used by the shell-pickers in comparatively recent times. DOOEY In 1914 Mrs. Brunicardi published a map in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland showing the positions of all the known. kitchen middens in the country. Not having seen this map I cannot say whether or t10t Dooey finds a r;ilace on it. However, my introduction to these sand-hills was in the late autumn of 1937. In August of that year Dr. Mahr, Keeper of the National Museum, spent his vacati-on in Inver. For him it was a ,imsman's holiday for he spent the time between Barnesmore and Glencolmkille examining archaeological remains. Acting in the capacity of guide I accompanied him on all his excursions. Olne of the ~laces we visited was the kitchen midden at Maghera (A.rdarn) where we found a number ·of very ancient pottery sherds, and a local man gave us a flint arrowhead which he had picked up in the midden a few days previously. After the departure of Dr. Mahr I set out to explore on my own account. >Do·oey from a distance looked promising, and it more than fulfilled that promise on my .first visit. There were fire sites, shell heaps in plenty and every appear-· ance of an ancient settlement. I picked up seven or eight bronze pins, a sandstone, spindle-whorl, a number of sherds of decorated pottery, and a pin from a penannular ·brooch. There were many pieces of slag which is a by-product of iron-smelting. In the next three or four years I made a number of similar "finds," including dozens of bronze p·ins, part of the hoop of a penannular brooch with ringed ornamentation, a complete penannular brooch in iron, a few decorated beads and one solitary chip of flint. All th·~ worth-while "finds" I .sent to the National Museum, but did not always succeed in getting the authorities there to express an op·inion as to the period to which they belonged. C'omparing the penannular hoop with illustrations given in a report on this type of brooch I came to the conclusion that it had second or third century characteristics. The Iron penannulur :brooch was regarded by the Museum as an important discovery, but in what way I was not informed. It was ascribed to the 7th century. It was with reference to the small bronze pins that Dr. Mahr wrote the following on 5th OctOiber, 1937: "It is most difficult to say anything about the age of these pins, but I had to come gradually to the conlcusion that they are almost completely modern. Some of them have heads which do not look like the ones of the present-day pins, but the general look of them is strangely reminiscent of machine-made things, and if a peasant girl can buy Birminghammade pins in almost any quantity on, say, Tory Island to-day, a similar state of affairs might have existed 1n the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries." DOOE~Y BURIAL SITE A standing stone, locally called Clochan~Stucain, was for long the most prominent object in the Dooey sandhills. It surmounted a grass-covered mound which occupied a, more or less, central position in the dunes. While there was a certain amount of awe con-
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