2000:0413 - BALLYEGAN, Kerry

This site was first identified during monitoring of the N21 Ballycarty–Killally road realignment project (see Excavations 2000, No. 409) and was excavated during March 2000. Two distinct areas of interest over 120m apart were noted, and it is unlikely that they were ever directly connected.

The brushwood deposit in Area A was composed of twigs and roundwood of 10–50mm in thickness and c. 0.6m in length, though some pieces of were up to 1.2m long. The feature measured up to 25m north-west/south-east and 6–10m in width, though some areas within these limits had very few or no timbers in evidence. The longer timbers in the western part of Area A had a clear north–south orientation and appeared to be predominantly birch or hazel, while the other timbers, possibly gorse, seem to have been randomly deposited. Some hazelnuts were found among the brushwood, much of which was covered with a layer of matted twigs.

The brushwood and timber feature in Area B was up to 15m long (north-west/south-east) and up to 6.5m wide, though it may have been truncated at the southern end by a modern drain. The feature was found under 0.4m of peat and was identified as a layered structure of brushwood and heavier timbers. The largest of the timbers in the basal layer was almost 5m long and up to 0.3m in diameter, while the lighter timbers were generally 10–50mm thick and up to 1.3m long. Almost 30 possible pegs were noted in this area, together with a number of possible dowels in the larger timbers. There was evidence that the feature had beem refurbished at some time, and the presence of a large number of hazelnut shells among the timbers would suggest that some of the construction work may have taken place in the autumn.

While the features excavated in Areas A and B were relatively well built and maintained, it is difficult to suggest that they served as trackways, and they may be more accurately described, on the available evidence, as brushwood platforms.

16 Avondale Court, Corbally, Limerick