mount sandel fort and mesolithic site

The hollowed-out centre makes it difficult to define this monument as a motte, though it may be identical with the Kill Santain or Kilsandel built by John de Courcy towards the close of the 12th century as a place from which he made forays west of the Bann. Excavations at the foot of the monument close to the river produced 13th century pottery and a carbonised branch of 13th century date. To the east, on high ground, is a fenced off area where excavations in 1973-77 uncovered remnants of Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) habitation representing some of the earliest traces of human activity in Ireland, dating from the 8th-7th millennium B.C. and later.