County: Kilkenny Site name: Oldtown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 12E0441
Author: COLM FLYNN TVAS (IRELAND) LTD
Site type: Medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 648880m, N 648245m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.583294, -7.278729
The site was located on the route of Bord Gáis Networks’ Gas Pipeline to Great Island scheme. The site was investigated as one large open excavation. Two Anglo-Norman medieval rural farmsteads were identified (Building 1- S, Building 2- N). Both of these farmsteads were rectangular in plan (measuring approximately 18m north-south x 8m each) and were delineated by earth and stone walls. Both had entrances in the eastern walls. Both buildings had numerous internal features including post-holes, stake-holes, pits, slot trenches, and deposits of occupational waste.
A series of boundary ditches, field systems and pits were situated around both buildings. A keyhole-shaped cereal drying kiln was situated to the south of Building 2.
The artefactual assemblage, orientation, and locational siting of the structures indicated that these buildings were contemporary. Artefacts from both indicate that they were constructed in the 13th-14th century. The absence of any later diagnostic pottery or other artefacts indicates that the buildings were out of use by the 15th century.
A post-medieval metalled trackway was identified at the southern end of the site. This trackway may have been associated with a dwelling (in ruins) approximately 40m to the west of the western limit of excavation of Site 1. This dwelling is depicted on the 1st ed. OS map.
AHISH, BALLINRUAN, CRUSHEEN, CO. CLARE.
