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Schoolchildren help find 8,000-year-old settlement in Northern Ireland

Two school girls stand in a field. They are warmly dressed. One wears a blue coat with pink flowers while the other is in a mint green coat. Both have brown hair slicked back into ponytails. Both girls are smiling. Behind them is the activity of an archaeological dig. people and buckets surround a trench dug into a field.

Archaeologists who were searching for the remains of a 400-year-old castle in Northern Ireland have stumbled across another discovery - an 8,000-year-old settlement.

Experts were hoping to find the location of Derrygonnelly Castle but instead found a number of objects dating back to the Mesolithic period.

Pupils from a local primary school were among 200 volunteers helping scientists during the two-week dig.

The team also located evidence of a Bronze Age house dating back 4,000 years, along with some prehistoric pottery.

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A hand holding an artefact which is a light brown colour with dark brown patches.Queen's University Belfast

Professor Eileen Murphy from Queen's University Belfast, who was involved in the dig, said the find was "mind-blowing".

"With archaeology you never know what you're going to find.

"We've actually been able to push the date of this site back from the 400 years we were looking for to about 8,000 or 9,000 years ago, to the time of Ireland's first settlers in the early Mesolithic," she explained.

Professor Murphy added that the landscape in Derrygonnelly, in the southwest of the country, would have suited early humans.

"It's a lovely, flat plateau right beside the River Sillies, and it would have been a really rich source of fish and waterbirds and an ideal place for hunter-gatherers to live".

The finds include tiny flints used as tools for hunting and fishing.

Two boys stand in a field. They are warmly dressed. The taller boy has blond curly hair and a big smile. The boy beside him has a wide smile and is wearing glasses. Behind them is a field with people and buckets.

Pupils from a local primary school were excited to take part in the dig - and also helped to make some ancient discoveries.

Ten-year-old Niamh found a piece of flint dating back to the Middle Stone Age.

"I didn't know what it was, so I went and asked the man and he said it was very cool. He took it to show his friends, and they said it was thousands of years old".

An archeological dig takes place in a field. A man in a hi-vis vest crouches in a carefully dug trench. he's wearing a hat and gloves and has a yellow bucket in front of him. in the background a man wearing similar clothing kneels in front of a pile of soil. He holds a clipboard and is surrounded by buckets.

Nine-year-old Niall said the dig has been "good but it's been messy".

"To find the artefacts you really have to get your hands into the soil and you can get dirty when you are trying to get into it".