2000:0452 - LISLOOSE, Tralee, Kerry

Pre-development testing was undertaken in advance of a housing complex in the townland of Lisloose on the outskirts of Tralee. The proposed development consists of the construction of 110 dwelling-houses on a site of 8.05 acres to the north of the town. Most of the proposed development is in the jurisdiction of Tralee Urban District, with the remainder in the jurisdiction of Kerry County Council.

The site consists of soggy marshland bounded by a stream in the west. While the development will not infringe on the holy well, its proximity to the site necessitated pre-development testing in the area. The well (Sunday Well) is located some 50m from the public entrance stile on the eastern side of the development site. Facing a southerly direction, the well is 1.17m wide and c. 1.45m high. The remains of a stone-constructed vault that covered the well survive. The OS Name Book records a stone at the well with the inscription ‘Rowland Bateman Esq. August 20th, 1912’. No trace of this stone survives. Some 20m to the south-east of the well there was an overgrown area defined by loose stones. Local tradition suggested that this may represent a leacht feature or be part of an altar structure.

Seven trenches were excavated. Trenches 1 and 2 were manually excavated, while Trenches 3–7 were excavated by machine. Six of the trenches excavated revealed natural gravel and boulder clay directly below the sod. Only in Trench 2, excavated in the area of the loose stone, was any archaeological material uncovered. Here a low, rectangular, stone structure was uncovered. Although the trench excavated was only 1m wide, it appeared that the stone feature covered an area 3.4m x 2.8m. It consisted of small flat stones that appeared coursed. Occasional glass and modern (20th-century) pottery fragments, as well as a coin dating to 1925, were recovered from the rubble fill. It was recommended that the area be excavated to reveal the structure’s extent and possible function.

Excavation of the stone feature involved an area measuring 10m x 7m. The excavation revealed a rectangular stone structure that was built into the ground and had been filled with rubble. The removal of rubble showed that the interior of the structure was at a greater depth than the exterior. Finds from the interior included occasional glass and modern pottery and three coins. Two of the coins dated to the 20th century, while the third was late 19th century.

The structure as revealed measured 3.4m x 2.85m externally and had a wall 0.65m thick. This wall was faced with uncut flat stones that were fairly well coursed throughout; it had a rubble fill. The exterior walls of the structure survived for an average height of 0.35–0.4m; those on the interior survived up to 0.65m in height. Natural boulder clay and gravel had been packed at the base of the exterior to ensure its stability. Mortar was not evident in the wall facing but was apparent throughout the rubble fill of the wall. The interior of the structure was filled with rubble for a depth of 1.1m. Underlying the rubble was natural boulder clay.

Excavation revealed a centrally placed opening in both the north and south ends of the structure. The chute at the south end tapered inwards, measuring 0.33m wide externally and 0.26m internally, and extended for a length of 0.98m. Two large limestone stones are all that survive of the original stone covering. The opening at the north end was 0.35m wide and was fed by a narrow drain, 0.2m wide and 0.24m deep, which ran in a roughly north–south direction and may have originated at the holy well. At the south end the drain was lined and capped with stones, and both the drain feature and the ground immediately surrounding it were filled by an orange boulder clay.

The shape, form and construction of the stone feature indicate that water was a major factor in its function and suggest that it may represent a stone mill, possibly a horizontal one. Water entered the structure at one end and exited it at the other. The structure was dug into the ground, and the construction suggests that the water was fed into the monument via a drain in the north and exited the structure in the south. It is interesting to note that the first edition OS map indicates a mill in the area but positions it in the south-west of the development site. Maybe this is the mill indicated, with the location marked incorrectly. One of the many legends associated with the well at Lisloose is that ‘a landlord tried to pipe the water to a nearby mill but it would not flow beyond the field boundary’ (O’Danachair 1958, 154). While this story cannot be substantiated, there is a drain leading from the direction of the well to the stone feature. It should be emphasised that this area will not be affected by the development and will remain a green space within it.

The monitoring of topsoil-stripping in the area of the development, using a mechanical excavator fitted with a 1m-wide toothless bucket, revealed no artefacts or features of archaeological significance. Throughout the field, natural boulder clay or gravel was found to underlie the topsoil layer. This stratigraphy was similar to that encountered in the majority of trenches excavated during pre-development testing.

Reference
O’Danachair, C. 1958 The holy wells of north Kerry. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 88, 154–64.

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