2025:719 - Srah, Greenhills, Wood and Rhode, Offaly
County: Offaly
Site name: Srah, Greenhills, Wood and Rhode
Sites and Monuments Record No.: OF004-007
Licence number: 24E0001
Author: Katarzyna Labaj
Author/Organisation Address: 195 Shanakill, Tralee, Co. Kerry
Site type: Medieval settlement complex, pits, linear features
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 653854m, N 736573m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.376591, -7.190640
Extensive licensed test excavations were undertaken across the limits of the proposed Garr Solar Farm (GSF) in the townlands of Srah, Greenhills, Wood and Rhode, Co. Offaly in early 2025. GSF encompasses c.155ha in total area and comprises of 21 individual agricultural fields used for crop cultivation and pasture. A total of 345 linear test trenches, extending for a little over 10km, were completed, of which 60 trenches were targeted on the results of anomalies recorded in the geophysical survey (24R0464).
A geophysical survey found no evidence of the recorded earthwork OF004-007, described in the Sites & Monuments Record as ‘of doubtful archaeological interest’. The negative geophysical results were further confirmed by the negative results of the two long test trenches T119 & T120 undertaken across the entirety of the recorded monument.
Archaeological features were recorded in: Field 1 (T31, T32, T34, T35, T36 & T37) at the location of a probable medieval settlement site identified in the geophysics survey; Field 2 (T4, T6, T8 and T9), Field 3 in T15 and Field 13 in T212.
Nothing of archaeological interest was found in any of the other test trenches
Samples including soil samples, animal bones and slag were recovered from investigated archaeological features.