1985:59 - MACMURROUGHS, Wexford

Proposed roadworks by Wexford County Council included the cutting of a new section of road through or in the environs of a site known traditionally and marked on the O.S. maps as 'MacMurrough Castle'. Prior to excavation no surface features were evident. The earliest evidence for activity on the site is provided by a number of flints and a ground stone axe. These items may be associated with a hearth and pit uncovered near the southern limit of the excavation. It is hoped that the results of C14 analysis on a sample of charcoal from the hearth will support a Neolithic date for this occupation. No remains of any structure which could be dated to the medieval period were located but a few sherds of 13th-century Saintonge pottery indicate some activity at the site in this period. The foundations of a rectangular building were uncovered near the eastern end of the site, but due to the disturbed nature of the thin soil cover over the area in general, no definite date could be assigned to its construction. The date range of the bulk of the pottery and clay pipes recovered, however, probably indicate that the house was built in the seventeenth century and occupied until the early nineteenth century.