County: Clare Site name: BALLYCONNEELY/BALLYGIRREEN (AR47/51)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0284
Author: Thaddeus C. Breen and Graham Hull, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 537805m, N 670344m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.780531, -8.921881
During monitoring of surface-stripping on the line of the N18/19 Road Improvement Scheme, a large ring-ditch was found on the western side of a valley containing a bog, AR48/50, and the small ring-ditch AR49. The part within the limits of the proposed road was subsequently fully excavated.
The site was subrectangular in plan, 70m north–south by 32m (max.). The total site area was c. 1820m2. The site sloped down from west (c. 18m above OD) to east (c. 15m above OD). The naturally occurring solid geology was Visean Carboniferous limestone, overlain by grey and brown podzols with associated gleys and alluvial regsols.
Immediately before construction work, the site had been used as pasture, and it had previously been the deer park of Dromoland Castle. The principal feature was a circular ditch, radius c. 50m. Half of the feature lay within CPO line; the other 50% has been preserved in situ. The ditch was U-shaped in profile, c. 2–2.5m wide and 1.5–2m deep.
Finds from the ditch included ring-pins and glass beads. Provisional analysis would suggest an early medieval date. Some disarticulated human skeletal material was found in the backfill of the ditch. The ditch appeared to have been deliberately backfilled, perhaps as landscaping in connection with the deer park.
The area enclosed by the ditch was empty apart from a pit and two linear features. Outside the ditch, to the north, was a stone-lined pit of unknown date, probably a kiln. The entire area was crossed by linear furrows that were probably lazy-bed furrows, perhaps post-medieval.
13 Wainsfort Crescent, Templeogue, Dublin 6W and 14 Mill House, Mill Road, Ennis, Co. Clare
