County: Kerry Site name: DROMTHACKER, Tralee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 29:95 Licence number: 97E0022
Author: Rose M. Cleary, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 485850m, N 616478m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.288112, -9.673213
Excavation of the eastern line of the ditch surrounding the ringfort at Dromthacker was carried out in the spring of 1998. This area will be under a pedestrian access to the new campus of the Institute of Technology, Tralee, and the ground surface will be built up over the ringfort ditch infill.
Excavation had previously been carried out at the ringfort (Excavations 1997, 85–6), and the results of the 1998 season showed that the infill history of the ditch was the same as that recorded the previous season. The plan of the excavated ditch showed that it had an elliptical curvature and varied in width from 2.5m to 3m, with a U-shaped profile. The fill of the ditch was continuous, and there was no evidence of an entrance. Excavations in 1997 indicated that a section of the ditch on the southern side of the ringfort had been backfilled with stone, and this may have been the location of an entrance, albeit not the original entrance to the site. The infill layers showed that the bank began to slip soon after the material was excavated from the ditch, as there was no evidence of naturally occurring silt in the base of the ditch. The ditch was subsequently infilled with a layer of redeposited boulder clay, suggesting a deliberate infill. Once the ditch was excavated it was recorded and backfilled.
