1997:560 - THURLES: Bowling Green, Tipperary

Archaeological monitoring was undertaken in May 1997 at the request of Dúchas The Heritage Service, Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, at the site of a ringfort on the outskirts of Thurles. Unconditional planning permission for development on the site had been granted 30 years ago following excavations carried out for the OPW. Construction of a single-storey dwelling by the south-east bank of the ringfort was proposed. After consultation with the National Monuments Service, the location of the proposed house was moved 6m from cutting the line of the bank, within the limits of the property boundary.

Mechanical excavation of four 1m-wide external wall-footing trenches, two 1m-wide engineering test-trenches and two internal 0.3m-wide slot trenches revealed the line of the external ditch or fosse to the fort, measuring from 4.5m to over 6m in width, curving around the eastern perimeter of the fort. An engineering test-trench revealed the fosse to be V-shaped in profile and to cut the yellow-brown boulder clay to an excavated depth of over 1m. The bank of the ringfort was partly revealed in the wall-footing Trench 1 and appeared to have been artificially scarped to increase the slope of the ditch. Modern disturbance by bulldozing had removed a large portion of the bank to the north and appeared to disturb part of the above-ground bank on the east side. Trench 1 also revealed evidence for an unassociated linear ditch aligned north-west/south-east and measuring over 4m in length and 1.3–2m in width, containing charcoal flecks and animal bone, and filled by reddish-brown silty clay with cobbles.

No further excavation was undertaken; the development did not require further ground disturbance except for the insertion of a septic tank which was located away from the line of the ditch in an archaeologically sterile area.

Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin