2006:1078 - KNOCKTOPHER: Barrettstown and Ricesland, Kilkenny

Testing of a greenfield site nearby to the medieval town of Knocktopher (KK031–017) was conducted in April 2006, on foot of geophysical survey (J. Leigh, 06R176), in response to a planning request for further information.

Along the west edge and south side of the site, evidence for medieval (and possibly early post-medieval) settlement and associated plot boundaries, field systems and other agricultural remains were identified, of a sort consistent with shrunken or deserted village remains, which might be expected in the vicinity of a settlement such as Knocktopher. These included: robbed-out drystone building foundations (5–6m across, 0.7m wide, with Ham Green and local cooking ware pottery, nearby post-holes and occupation-type spreads); (side) ‘croft’ plot boundaries presenting as earthwork lynchets, with parallel furrows or lazy-beds visible in the subsoil between them; other more substantial (rear) plot boundaries, of slight banks (0.25m high) and ditches (2.8–3m wide, 1.5–1.6m wide) that were also used for water management; and further afield, a subcircular drystone platform (1.6–1.8m in diameter, with more local cooking ware sherds) that may have been a haystack base.

Near the north end of the site, in addition to identifying the former natural channel of a canalised watercourse (pre-dating 1839, probably post-dating c. 1750), an isolated oval pit (1.3m by 1m by 0.15m) filled with burnt-mound/fulacht fiadh-type material was found.