2025:484 - Knockanacuig, Kerry

The 2025 excavations at Knockanacuig, the third season of excavation, focused on the excavation of the man-made pool which had been partly uncovered in 2024 and the excavation of a section across the line of the outer enclosure at the west.

The excavationof the pool confirmed that it was indeed man made and was embanked, partly by the outer bank of the barrow and elsewhere by a low earthen bank with a cobbled, flat top forming a walkway around much of the pool. The circular pool was 20m in diameter and intersected with the barrow on its eastern side forming a figure of 8 arrangement.  The pool was up to 1.3m in depth while two large post-holes excavated in the centre of the pool suggest wooden posts or totems erected within the water-filled pool. Excavation of the silts that mainly filled the pool revealed a stunning array of wooden artefacts and worked wood as well as evidence for woven hurdles/fence panels, animal and human bone.

The section across the outer enclosure at the west confirmed that the site was enclosed by an earthen bank with internal ditch. Both the bank and the ditch were over 10m in maximum width while the ditch was over 2.2m in depth. Unfortunately, a sink hole had opened up in the ditch and attempts had been made to fill this hole with stone and soil which hampered a detailed investigation in the base of the ditch.

Detailed analysis of the wealth of organic material from the pool is awaited while excavations will continue at the site in 2026.