County: Tipperary Site name: CHANCELLORSLAND
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 2E00128
Author: Martin Doody, Discovery Programme Ltd, Ballyhoura Hills Project
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 575755m, N 635848m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.473526, -8.356857
The complex of archaeological sites at Chancellorsland, located approximately 1.5km north-east of Emly, Co. Tipperary, was first recognised during the Bruff aerial photographic survey in 1986. The survey was a detailed medium-altitude (1:10,000) coverage of a 70km2 area centred on Bruff, Co. Limerick. The purpose was to establish the usefulness of medium-altitude vertical stereophotography in discovering hitherto-unknown archaeological sites. The survey proved to be extremely effective in this regard and several hundred new sites were recorded.
At Chancellorsland the complex of archaeological sites included a small barrow cemetery and a number of enclosures in close proximity to each other. Detailed investigations at the site, involving topographic and geophysical survey and excavations, have been ongoing since 1992 as part of the Discovery Programme Ballyhoura Hills Project (summary accounts available in Discovery Programme Reports nos 1, 2 and 4).
Excavations at Site C were undertaken in 1992, 1994 and 1996. The work in 1996 took place over a nine-week period in July and August. The site consists of a circular enclosure, 35m in diameter, with several outlying earthworks, including a ring-barrow and a penannular barrow on the northern side. The 1994 excavation confirmed that the barrows postdated the circular enclosure.
The 1996 excavation concentrated on the circular enclosure itself. The enclosure is situated, like most of the earth-works in the complex, on a natural rise. It is surrounded by a ditch, average width and depth 2.9m and 0.55m respectively. There is no bank. The stratigraphy of the site was complex and there was evidence of several phases of activity. The remains of at least five structures were uncovered in the interior of the site, not all of which were in use at the same time. The indications from the very small number of artefacts and the equally small amount of domestic refuse found on the site are of short-term occupation which may have taken place over a number of years. Two C dates have been processed: 1205±82 BP (660–1000 cal. AD; UB 3625) and 1460±165 BP (230–890 cal. AD; AA 10277). Further samples have been submitted for dating, including one from a lower horizon which may prove to be significantly earlier in date.
13–15 Hatch St. Lower, Dublin
