County: Limerick Site name: BALLYCUMMIN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0504 and ext.
Author: Audrey Gahan, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 554560m, N 652145m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.618641, -8.671051
The Loughmore Link represents a stretch of c. 750m of the proposed N20/N21 Adare-Annacotty road scheme, within the townland of Ballycummin, Co. Limerick. Removal of topsoil along this part of the road was monitored for archaeological material. Five areas of archaeological significance were identified and excavated. In all cases the features survived only where they cut subsoil, the result of generations of farmland development.
Area 1 consisted of an arc of small pits and postholes filled with charcoal-rich soils. It is possible that the site, which was c. 7m in diameter, represents the heavily truncated remains of a circular hut, of probable prehistoric (Bronze Age?) date.
Area 2 was adjacent to an area previously excavated by Paul Logue (No. 382, Excavations 1998), where substantial evidence of Bronze Age activity was uncovered. Most likely this area was an extension of that activity. The site itself consisted of around 40 post-holes and pits. No discernible structure could be identified, and a saddle quern, within one of the pits, represented the only artefact from the site.
The remaining three areas investigated consisted of random scatters of pits and post-holes. Truncation in the area means that no discernible structures could be identified. No artefacts that could conclusively date the sites were recovered, but, as with the rest of the archaeology within this area, it appears most likely that they date to the prehistoric period.
Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ
