County: Tipperary Site name: TULLAHEDY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 97E0317
Author: Paul Logue, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 583624m, N 677745m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.850383, -8.243121
Excavations were undertaken on this site during the period 18–29 August. The site was located at the southern end of a low-lying field, approximately three miles south of Nenagh, Co. Tipperary. To the west the field was bounded by the N7 Limerick–Dublin road. The topography to the north-east was more undulating owing to the presence of natural mounds of glacial deposits. The work was carried out on behalf of Tipperary Co. Council, in advance of road construction.
During the assessment, three trenches were opened, measuring 10m x 10m (Trench 1), 20m x 1m (Trench 2) and 15m x 1m (Trench 3). A total of 60m2 was hand-excavated onto the white shelly marl subsoil during the excavation. Above the marl was a layer of peat, 0.5m in maximum depth. Above this three banks, consisting of mottled sand, loam and blue-grey clay, were revealed. The possible edge of a fourth bank was exposed in Trench 2.
Two features cut into the underlying peat and marl were uncovered in Trench 2. They seem to represent linear pits. Both were filled with a mix of sand, clay and peat. Neither feature appeared to have been filled by a process of natural silting, implying that only a short period elapsed between the digging and backfilling of the pits. These pits seem to have been dug for the purpose of extracting the marl. During the 19th century, bog reclamation was prevalent throughout Ireland. Marl or calcareous blue clay from the Shannon and sea-sand were used as fertiliser in the reclamation of bog in the west.
The most easterly of the two pits was overlain by the edge of a possible fourth sand bank. In Trenches 2 and 3 it was seen that the sand deposits were localised to the areas of the banks only. Therefore, it may be assumed that the sand was not an indigenous component of the geological deposits in the area and may have been obtained from the natural mounds of glacial deposits to the east.
In Trench 2 a layer of mixed peaty sand was discovered. Above this was a layer of loamy material. Both these layers were in turn overlain by the brown sandy loam topsoil and also partially by a blue-grey clay. These layers most likely represent a stage in the process of reclamation, where soil was being created on the surface of the bog using the marl and sand mixed with the upper layers of the peat. This activity is undated at present, although it is suggested that a late 18th- to 19th-century date is the most likely.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
