County: Kerry Site name: BALLYCARTY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 38:22 Licence number: 96E0138
Author: Michael Connolly, Kerry County Museum
Site type: Megalithic tomb - passage tomb and Enclosure
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 487074m, N 612353m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.251301, -9.653903
During the summer of 1996 excavations in the townland of Ballycarty, 4km east of Tralee, Co. Kerry, revealed the presence of a complex and unusual archaeological landscape on and around a 200m-long limestone spur, 50m south of the River Lee. The excavations were necessitated by the construction of a new link between the existing Killarney Road and Tralee town (the N22), and, while an enclosure had been centrally recorded on the spur, survey showed the spur to have a far more complex history.
The passage tomb
The area of excavation was on the very western tip of the spur, where, prior to sod-stripping, only a very low undulation of the ground surface was visible. Removal of the sod from this area revealed that the mound was in fact a low stone and earthen cairn with a central 0. 17m-deep depression on its surface. Sod-stripping also revealed the presence of a very collapsed stone rampart which abutted the cairn on its southern side and ran across the western end of the spur.
Excavation revealed that the cairn was laid down in alternating layers of stone and earth and covered a small passage tomb. The tomb consisted of three concentric rings of limestone boulders, cut by a roughly built passage, 1.4m long, on their western side. The stone rings were excellently preserved in the southern half of the site but had been substantially destroyed in the northern half by the construction of a later stone and earth bank, probably associated with the rampart.
The western side of the site also revealed the presence of a well-constructed curved monumental façade. The façade was built of limestone slabs, two courses high in some places, and remained to a height of 1.3m. It had been added to the site during a second phase of activity which saw the construction of a slab and boulder orthostatic passage, c. 3m long, through the façade. This passage led to a subrecrangular rock-cut chamber which may originally have been walled with orthostats, later removed. The chamber measured 1.5m x 1.2m.
In a final phase of activity at the site, the front (more westerly) half of this Phase 2 passage was restructured and realigned through the addition of a wedge-shaped section of drystone walling to the existing southern side wall and the construction of a completely new drystone section of the northern side wall. Interestingly, the interface between the two differing construction techniques of the extant passage—drystone walling in the outer, more westerly portion and orthostatic construction in the portion nearest the chamber—is marked by the only surviving lintel. The lintel appears to have rolled off two stones which overhang the passage immediately inside (east of) its current position, and indicates a height for the passage at this point of 0.67m.
Also during this final phase the existing chamber was replaced by a D-shaped drystone-built chamber, which was placed inside the existing rock-cut feature. This chamber produced a quantity of cremated bone and some worked flints.
However, it is important to note that each successive phase of alteration to the site interfered with the previous structure and any associated burials.
The enclosure of the spur
The most visible feature on the spur, apart from the central enclosure, is a very collapsed enclosing rampart of stone and earth which could initially be seen on the northern and southern sides of the site, running from the western end of the spur to a point just east of the central enclosure.
Following sod-stripping on the western end of the spur, a section of rampart linking with that on the southern side, but running over that on the northern side, was uncovered. This section of rampart abutted the south side of the passage tomb but then veered sharply westward to avoid further interference with the burial site.
Five excavated sections across this western rampart revealed the presence of two differing construction styles. The majority of the rampart was of very collapsed, random earth and stone construction, except for a section at the northern extent where the rampart was faced, both internally and externally, with a rubble core. At this point the rampart was only 1m wide, whereas in the areas of a more random construction it was as wide as 3.2m.
Tralee, Co. Kerry
