County: Kilkenny Site name: PARKSGROVE 2
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0598
Author: Paul Stevens for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 643486m, N 670344m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.782366, -7.355395
This site was revealed during archaeological monitoring of a Bord Gáis Éireann gas pipeline development (see No. 426 Excavations 1999). The site is in Parksgrove townland, 1.5km south-west of Ballyragget, within the western flood-plain of the River Nore. Excavation of the site within the wayleave corridor was carried out in August 1999 before development.
Natural, orange boulder clay was cut by three separate troughs, which clustered in the centre of this site. Trough A was a subcircular pit with a concave profile, 2.2m in diameter and 0.8m deep, containing a truncated lining of light grey putty clay, 0.8m thick, at the very base of the trough. The pit was deliberately backfilled with redeposited, sandy, natural clay and burnt mound material, and a single post-hole was found immediately south of the trough.
Trough B, 1m west of Trough A, was a subcircular pit with U-shaped profile, 1.7m in diameter and 0.9m deep. Four stake-holes were cut around the base of the trough, possibly representing the sails of a wicker lining. This trough was also deliberately backfilled by a single, uniform layer of burnt mound material and also had an associated post-hole immediately east of it.
Trough C, immediately north of Trough B, was a rectangular pit with square profile and rounded edges, measuring 2.8m by 1.6m by 0.5m deep. It contained a truncated lining of bright grey putty clay, 0.3m thick, in turn sealed by a deliberate backfill of burnt mound material. A small, tight cluster of shallow stake-holes and a further isolated stake-hole were found at the eastern edge of this trough. A small whetstone was retrieved from its lower backfill.
The troughs were sealed by a burnt mound, which was circular in plan with a concave profile. The mound consisted of fire-cracked stone (sandstone 95%/limestone 5%), charcoal lumps and black silt and covered an area of 21m north-south by over 11m, continuing to the west, and 0.25m in maximum truncated depth. An informal hearth area, south of the trough complex, was sealed within the burnt mound. Later ploughing of the site and modern drainage activity reduced the level of the top of the mound.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
