County: Limerick Site name: KILGOBBIN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0423
Author: Ciara MacManus, c/o ADS Ltd.
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 547811m, N 648592m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.586103, -8.770150
Excavation of an area of potential archaeological interest in Kilgobbin townland, Co. Limerick, took place over two weeks in July. The area lay along the line of the proposed N20/N21 road realignment and had been discovered during topsoil-stripping monitoring. The site survived as a roughly circular ring of black, charcoal-rich soil, c. 5m in diameter, with a small, circular pit to the south of this. Approximately 50m to the east of the site another large circular pit was found and excavated.
Excavation of the spread revealed the existence of three very badly truncated pits, set out in a triangle, all filled by a charcoal-rich, silty clay, and a number of small random post-holes. As the pits were so badly truncated, it proved difficult to determine their extent and even more so their function. The presence of the small post-holes on site suggests that this may be the remains of a structure, where perhaps the spreads represent the remains of slots as opposed to pits.
As no immediately datable material was recovered from the site, it is not possible at present to tell what period this activity is from.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Dublin 3
