County: Kerry Site name: BALLYHEIGUE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0836
Author: Laurence Dunne, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Burnt spread and Pit
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 475227m, N 628350m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.392455, -9.833260
Monitoring was undertaken in Ballyheigue, Co. Kerry, in October 2000 at a development of twenty holiday homes and associated services. During the course of monitoring, four areas of archaeological potential were uncovered. These were subsequently excavated under licence.
Area 1 measured 10m east–west by 6m. It contained twelve features: two shallow pits, one burnt spread, three stake-holes, five post-holes and one post-pipe. The fill of one post-hole produced a small piece of flint, along with minuscule traces of burnt bone. The fill of the post-pipe also produced traces of burnt bone.
A single feature, a burnt spread, was identified in Area 2. It had two fills, a charcoal deposit and burnt clay. No finds were recovered from this area.
A single feature, a burnt spread, was identified in Area 3a. No finds were recovered from this area, which had been severely damaged after being trunked over with hardcore.
Thirteen features were identified in Area 4—seven stake-holes and six pits. Five of these features had possible blade cuts. This blade cut was c. 0.1m wide and appears to have a second straight cut, almost at a right angle to it.
Four stake-holes in the north-western part of the area may form part of a flimsy structure, possibly a windbreak or an animal pen. A concave parallel arc was formed by a number of pits and stake-holes and was aligned north-west/south-east. A flint flake was recovered from the fill of the largest of the pits.
There was a general paucity of finds from the site in Ballyheigue; finds comprised two pieces of flint from Areas 1 and 4, two traces of burnt bone from Area 1 and one hammerstone, a stray find.
3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry
