County: Kilkenny Site name: CASTLEBLUNDEN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0756
Author: Paul Stevens for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Pit-burial
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 647205m, N 654087m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.635952, -7.302604
This site was revealed in Castleblunden townland, 4km south-west of Kilkenny City, during archaeological monitoring of a Bord Gáis Éireann gas pipeline development (see No. 426 Excavations 1999). Excavation was carried out in August 1999 before development. Castleblunden townland is part of St Patrick's parish and takes its name from the Cromwellian Overington Blunded, who was granted the lands in 1653.
A single cremation pit was found 38m south of the source of the Stony Stream. The underlying yellow, glacial boulder clay was cut by the small, partially truncated, circular pit, which had a concave profile and measured 0.5m in diameter and 0.1m in depth. The pit contained a uniform charcoal-rich fill with occasional pebbles and small stones, with 40% of the deposit composed of crushed cremated human bone, measuring 5–20mm in diameter, distributed throughout the fill but with concentrations to the middle and sides.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
