2021:494 - KILFEAKLE: Church Quarter, Tipperary

Monitoring was undertaken in November 2021 within the Zone of Notification for the deserted medieval settlement of Kilfeakle (TS059-127) and within close proximity to the Kilfeakle Motte and bailey (TS059-127001-) a national monument in the ownership of Tipperary County Council and subject to a Preservation Order 79/1939. The works involved the mechanical excavation of a 53m long open-cut trench cut along the hard shoulder of the southern side of the N74 extended from south-west of the entrance to St Patrick’s Church to the junction of the Donaskeagh Road (L4208). The trench measured 1.1m deep by 400m wide and exposed a yellow-brown natural boulder clay under the surface layer of tar and gravelly road base (300mm). The stratigraphy was a 180mm-thick layer of asphalt over modern aggregate of sand and gravel overlying a natural sandy clay with a moderate amount of limestones. No archaeological cuts/fills or artefacts were noted in the exposed section faces.