The Lough Erne Landscape Partnership, in collaboration with archaeologists from the Centre for Community Archaeology at Queen's University Belfast, recently embarked on a community archaeology excavation at Lisdoo in Lisnaskea.
This was part of the Lough Erne Landscape Partnership project which was titled - 'People, Place, Power and Pageantry: Exploring Fermanagh at the time of the Maguires'
In relation to this, lead archaeologist, Ruairi O'Baoill recently presented his analysis of the site and findings in Lisnaskea.
Speaking to Northern Sound, Ruairi described the Lisnaskea area as the "heartland" of the Maguire lordship during medieval times. According to Ruairi, September's dig was was focused on an excavation of a large defensive ringfort in Lisdoo, which is believed to be to have been the main place of residence of the Maguire lords of the time.
He added that the recent excavation was a "wonderful experience" due to the joint effort of local children and from nearby schools who participated in the dig.
"Archaeology is digging up history - so we were digging up and getting new information about the local history of Lisnaskea," he told Northern Sound.
"It was wonderful that young people were touching artefacts that maybe were even dropped thousands of years ago by some of their ancestors. The other thing is that archaeology is fun. People enjoy the digging and the community and learning aspects of it. Having young people involved is really important because they're the next generation of archaeologists."
He continued; "Our excavation found late medieval Irish pottery along with animal bones. We also found the remains of a very large ditch of one of the monuments at Castle Balfour Road, and we're pretty sure that what we found backed up the excavations which were carried out in 1977, in that we were digging within this very important Maguire lordship monument that was occupied from the 14th to the 16th century before they built the their stone tower house."
Ruairi also thanked the National Lottery Heritage Fund for supporting this project, the local landowner of the site, and the assistance of the Department of Communities, Historic Environment Division and the Lisnaskea Historical Society.
