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Lough
Boora Stone Age Site
This is situated on the site of former Lough Boora, a 50 acre lake that was drained during the early 1950s. Evidence of an Early Mesolithic site was discovered there during peat production operations in 1977 by an employee Mr. Joe Craven. Attention was attracted to the site by a ridge of loose gravel which turned out to have been a storm beach on a much greater lake that existed there after the last Ice Age. On a promontory of this shore the remains of a number of hearths (cooking areas) were discovered. These were carbon-dated to 8,500 years ago. Near these hearths a small number of polished stone axes, and over 500 small blades of chert were found. Also found were the bones of wild pigs, hares, birds and small fish and hazelnut shells. Much of this discarded material was the remains of meals cooked in the hearths in pre-history.
Before this discovery the only evidence of Mesolithic man, Ireland's
earliest known inhabitants, had come from the North East of the country.
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