County: Kerry Site name: CLOGHERS, Tralee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RMP 29:155 Licence number: 00E0300
Author: Jacinta Kiely, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Field boundary
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 483510m, N 613266m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.258760, -9.706395
Three test-trenches were excavated to test the archaeological potential of the exclusion zone of a ringfort, and the archaeological potential of the footprint of the foundations of House Sites 1–9 and the access road for a proposed development in the townland of Cloghers, Tralee. The ringfort is sited in the south-western corner of a field. It is bisected to the west and south by two field walls. There are no visible surface traces of the remainder of the ringfort in the adjacent fields. The interior measures 26m north–south by 23m. The internal bank is eroded and survives in places to a height of 0.3–0.4m. The base of the ditch is 2m wide and 1.1m deep.
Trench 1 (30m x 5m) was located 9m north of the ringfort, on the footprint of House Sites 1–2. A section of a destroyed field boundary was recorded in the trench. Trench 2 (5m x 100m) was located 12m east of the ringfort, on the footprint of the proposed access road. Two destroyed field boundaries were recorded. Trench 3 (5m x 100m) was excavated south of and parallel to Trench 2 at a distance of 6m from the ditch of the ringfort, on the footprint of House Sites 5–9. A section of a destroyed field boundary was recorded in the trench.
Two field boundaries, now destroyed, are marked on the first edition OS map, in the western area of the proposed development site. The westernmost ditch section in Trench 2 and the ditch section in Trench 3 form part of one of the destroyed field boundaries. The profiles of the other ditches recorded in Trenches 1 and 2 are similar.
No artefacts were recovered from the trenches or ditch sections.
Clover Hill, Mallow, Co. Cork
