County: Offaly Site name: CLORHANE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 5:46 Licence number: —
Author: Heather A. King
Site type: Field system
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 599550m, N 728028m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.302543, -8.006737
A watching brief was carried out on 24th November while percolation pits for 2 cottages were dug at Clorhane, Shannonbridge, Co. Offaly. This monitoring was carried out in accordance with a pre-planning requirement by Offaly County Council and the Office of Public Works and was funded by the developer.
The percolation area lay on the south side of a large field in which a field system was recorded in the Sites and Monuments Record. The entire field has evidence for ridge and furrow cultivation while a number of low banks adjacent to rock outcrop on the south side of the field appear to delimit small rectangular enclosures. The site for the percolation pits lay on the south side of the field in a flat area below the Clonmacnoise to Shannonbridge Road where the cultivation ridges ran from north to south. Six percolation pits were opened, 2 to a depth of 2m, but no evidence for archaeological features or artefacts was recovered. In addition a trench was put through a low bank on the south side of the field at a point where piping would be brought from the cottages to the percolation area. The bank was built of earth and there was little difference between the material in the bank and the underlying soil. No finds were recovered.
Skidoo, Ballyboughal, Co. Dublin
