County: Limerick Site name: BALLYBRONOGE SOUTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 21:122 Licence number: 96E380-AR5
Author: James Eogan, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 551160m, N 648345m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.584200, -8.720682
A subcircular grassy hollow abutting the main Limerick-Cork road was identified in the EIS of the proposed Annacotty-Adare road improvement scheme as a site of archaeological potential. It has a maximum diameter, at the top, of 26m (east-west). The sides slope quite steeply to a base that is relatively flat and has a maximum diameter of 1 1.5m (north-south); it is a minimum of 0.85m deep (below the level of the surrounding ground). Cattle erosion had exposed an area of bedrock midway downslope on the north-western side of the feature.
A cutting (16m long and 1m wide) was excavated from the centre of the feature southwards and can be divided into two halves on the basis of the stratigraphy found. In the southern half, undisturbed natural, a creamy grey sandy clay, was found between 0.35m and 0.03m below present ground level. However, at a point 7.1 m from the southern end of the trench a sheet of limestone bedrock was uncovered. It was cut at 7.4m from the southern end of the cutting; the cut descended 1m in a series of rough steps between 7.4m and 8.3m from the southern end of the cutting. Owing to the very loose nature of the stony fills, excavation could not be continued beyond a depth of 1 m in the northern half of the cutting; as a result the base of the cut was not found.
This feature is clearly a filled-in quarry-pit; it is not depicted on any editions of the OS 6" map of this area, nor is there any local knowledge of its use. The only finds came from the topsoil and were exclusively modern.
Power House, Pigeon House Harbour, Dublin 4
