1999:318 - BALLYBUNION: New Road, Kerry

Planning permission to construct a dwelling-house over a partially levelled ringfort at New Road, Ballybunion, Co. Kerry, included archaeological conditions on the development.

A two-week excavation at the site revealed the existence of the ditch, a more recent land drain and cultivation furrows. The site was considered to be a ringfort when surveyed in early 1990, and the results of the archaeological excavation presented no additional information to alter this interpretation. Nothing survived to indicate a bank surrounding the ditch, but it is know that such a structure did exist from the description in the North Kerry Archaeological Survey (Toal 1995, 100). The upper stony fills in two of the excavated sections were considered to represent the vestiges of a bank that had been machined into the partially infilled ditch. Further evidence for disturbance to the upper level of the ditch was noted in other sections, where clay pipe stems and modern bottle glass were recovered. All the evidence therefore pointed to considerable disturbance before archaeological excavation.

No intact stratigraphy was encountered, and in many places, particularly within the area of the interior, damage had taken place down to the surface of the boulder clay. Only a small proportion of the interior was exposed, however, and undisturbed archaeological features may survive towards the centre of the enclosure in the adjoining field.

With the exception of a possible hone stone from a disturbed context in the general location of the bank, no firm dating evidence was obtained from the excavation. The presence of burnt animal bones in the base of the ditch is an indicator of human domestic activity, and these could eventually be used to obtain a date for the occupation of the ringfort.

Reference
Toal, C. 1995 North Kerry Archaeological Survey. Dingle.