County: Tipperary Site name: KILLORAN 31
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 36:20 Licence number: 98E0269
Author: Paul Stevens for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Habitation site
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 620946m, N 666141m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.745935, -7.689773
An archaeological excavation was undertaken in advance of the installation of an ESB pole unit on the site of an Early Christian ecclesiastical enclosure. The site lies in Killoran townland, Moyne parish. The results form part of the Lisheen Archaeological Project, an integrated research project. Development was halted as part of the archaeological monitoring for the Lisheen mine and was allowed to proceed by Dúchas, provided archaeological excavation was undertaken for the footprint of the poles. This excavation was done in July 1998.
The site is a large, circular enclosure visible as a low, curving, scarped platform, continued in the line of the modern field boundary but with no visible trace to the north. The enclosure is 155m in diameter, surviving to a height of c. 0.5m. The site was naturally defensive, at the southern end of a glacial ridge, enclosed on three sides by bog (now reclaimed) and to the east by the Moyne Stream, 50–70m east of the monument.
Excavation consisted of a single cutting along the footprint of the development, measuring 6m north-south by 5m. Excavation revealed a cluster of oval burnt pits and post-holes used for ironworking, rich in ironworking waste, with one containing a broken furnace bowl. Samples of charcoal taken from these pits were identified by I.L. Stuijts (pers. comm.) as Quercus and Taxus branches, and radiocarbon-dated to AD 450–690 (Beta-120521). The cutting was bisected by two overlapping parallel linear gullies associated with a cluster of roughly aligned post- and stake-holes post-dating the ironworking activity. A third linear gully was at right angles to the line of slots and stopped short of them. The three features delineated most of the features on the site, and represent slot-trenches for an internal wattle partition within the large enclosure.
A number of other associated or unassociated features of apparent antiquity were found within the trench. There were also several outlying features, mainly shallow post-holes. One cluster of post-holes around the north-western terminus did not appear to form an alignment. The enclosure was bisected by a recent field bank and ditch, running east-west.
The date of the site is within the lifetime of the Saint Odran, and it was probably founded by him, before AD 563 or 548. It may have continued to function as a monastery for some years.
2 Killiney View, 2 Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
