County: Wicklow Site name: JOHNSTOWN SOUTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 41:5 Licence number: 96E0156
Author: Martin Fitzpatrick, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Neolithic (4000BC-2501 BC)
ITM: E 709541m, N 678753m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.848560, -6.373720
This work, commissioned by Wicklow County Council, is concerned with the archaeological investigation of a possible ringfort in advance of a bypass of Arklow town on the main Dublin-Wexford Road, the N11.
Over a three-week period in August trial-trenches were manually excavated to determine whether full excavation would be required prior to the commencement of road construction.
The site is represented as a subcircular enclosure on the OS maps and is classified as a ringfort in the Sites and Monuments Record. All that visibly survives today is a low bank c. 0.5m in height and 9–10m wide, enclosing an area c. 36m north-south and 33m east-west. Lazy-beds cover the entire area enclosed by the bank and are also found in the immediately surrounding land.
Six trenches were excavated during the investigation of the site. These showed the site to be a subcircular enclosure surrounded by a stone and earthen bank with no evidence for an internal or external ditch. To the immediate east of the site archaeological investigation of a low bank revealed evidence for an outer ditch.
Perhaps the most interesting finds from the site were two sherds of Neolithic pottery-one from the bank of the enclosure, the other from the interior. These finds, along with 116 flint flakes, cores and fragments (some of which were worked), suggest a prehistoric date for the site.
As a result of the archaeological investigation of Johnstown South and subsequent consultation between Valerie J. Keeley Ltd (Project Coordinator) and Wicklow County Council, the site will be fully excavated prior to the commencement of road construction.
Oranmore, Co. Galway
