County: Kerry Site name: CLOGHERS, Tralee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0759
Author: Laurence Dunne, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 483510m, N 613266m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.258760, -9.706395
This test excavation relates to a planning application seeking permission to construct residential dwellings at Cloghers, Tralee. The application includes plans to fill and landscape a geological doline known locally as the Devil’s Hole. As the doline lies in an area of high archaeological activity, testing was required by Dúchas The Heritage Service as a condition of planning in order to determine whether archaeological deposits were present.
The Devil’s Hole is a prominent feature in the landscape, associated with recorded folklore and potential archaeological features, and is recorded on the first and second editions of the OS map (Sheet 29). The slopes surrounding its central depression are obscured by a plantation of eucalyptus trees, making the doline itself invisible from the road. The average diameter of the hole is 30m east–west by 27m. The interior and the sides of the hole have been used as a dumping area for branches and cut-offs from the eucalyptus plantation.
The study of aerial photographs has indicated the possibility of a ditch and bank surrounding the feature. On examination of the site by field-walking, the remains of a possible ditch and bank were located at the north-west. A magnetic gradiometry survey suggested the possible existence of a ring of pits or post-holes running around the edge of the doline.
Test excavations took place over one week during October 2000. Seven trenches were opened along the foundation lines of the proposed house sites, where the greatest amount of ground disturbance will occur. Trenches were placed around the mouth of the Devil’s Hole to assess the possible existence of an enclosing element, along with several other anomalies noted in the geophysics results.
The results of all trenches were archaeologically negative. The ring of features around the edge of the doline indicated by geophysical survey was found to result from modern fencing.
3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry
