Teenager discovers 800 year-old ring on Armagh farm By Angela Sammon - 02/06/09
A silver ring dating back to the 12th century has been unearthed on a farm in Northern Ireland.
The medieval ring was discovered by 17-year-old Conor Sandford, as he was fixing a fence post on his father’s farm in the village of Kilmore in County Armagh. The field neighbours Kilmore parish church (pictured), an area acknowledged by archaeologists as a significant medieval settlement. The church dates back to approximately 422 AD.
The youngster thought at first that the ring was ring pull from a fizzy drink. But the canny teenager soon realised he had found an item of significant interest. He contacted Helen Geake from Channel Four’s Time Team, who advised him to get in touch with the Ulster Museum.
The experts from the Museum dated the ring to approximately 1170.
Cormac Bourke, the museum's long standing curator of medieval antiquities, explained the ring would have belonged to someone of wealth.
"It must pertain to middle or upper echelons of society, but we can't say if it was owned by a man or a woman," he said during the hearing at Belfast's Mays Chambers Such cases are held before the Coroners Court in Northern Ireland to determine whether the items are treasure and thus belong to the Crown.
In order to qualify for that status, the artefact has to be more than 300 years old and be 10% constituted of precious metal.
