County: Kerry Site name: ARDFERT COMMUNITY CENTRE, Ardfert
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 20:46 (adjacent to) Licence number: 97E0302
Author: Isabel Bennett
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 478798m, N 620374m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.321596, -9.777944
Archaeological monitoring of all ground disturbance during the building of an extension to St Brendan's Community Centre, Ardfert, took place in July. The small site (27m north-south by 10m max. east-west) was almost completely excavated in the process as the site was bisected by several foundation trenches, all dug into the natural. Some disturbance had taken place in the past, between the erection of the hall itself and the wall which delimited the site to the west, as well as services trenches.
Some features of interest were noted, mainly in the less-disturbed, northern portion of the site. These included a U-bottomed pit, 0.73m wide by 0.64m deep, filled with orange, charcoal-flecked marl, some shell middens, some wall foundations, layers of redeposited natural, an area of burning which may be the base of a pit, a stone-filled drain, a timber post and two pockets of animal bone.
No artefacts were found during the monitoring, and the majority of the features noted were apparently of fairly recent date. As none of the features noted were obviously of much archaeological importance in their own right, they were recorded and the work was allowed to continue.
Glen Fahan, Ventry, Tralee, Co. Kerry
