2000:0454 - MANOR WEST, Tralee, Kerry

Situated on the eastern limits of Tralee town, an outcropping limestone reef at Manor West has been shown through recent survey to have a number of probable prehistoric monuments on its upper slopes. Housing development has edged up to the western limit of the reef in the recent past, as a result of which the reef has been protected by Dúchas The Heritage Service, who issued a Registration Order (F94 6049-1) on the monument.

Monitored topsoil-stripping in this area, undertaken in advance of the development of a retail park, uncovered evidence of extensive prehistoric activity on the slope at the foot of the reef just outside the zone of protection.

Excavations of the various features identified during monitoring took place over three months during the summer and early autumn of 2000. The site was subdivided into nine areas: 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 2, 2A, 3, 4 and 5.

Area 1
Area 1 lay upon the gently inclined, lower eastern slopes of the limestone reef, some 15m east of the edge of the monument exclusion zone. It was a maximum of 45m long and 15m wide and was divided into a series of individually numbered 5m2 grids, as were Areas 1C and 2. Grid numbers in Area 1 run from 1 to 20. This was the first area where archaeology was uncovered, presenting itself initially in the form of a large number of pits and post-holes with dark fills quite rich in charcoal and shattered pieces of burnt sandstone. These features were concentrated in Grids 1–9 in Area 1. In general, negative archaeological features were much disturbed by the formation of numerous swallow-holes owing to the unusual geology of these limestone reefs.

A series of small to medium pits/post-holes in Grids 1–3 ran through an arc of c. 160o from south-south-west through west to north, with a radius of c. 5.5m. Lithic material was recovered from the fills of three of these cuts. A less substantial arc of stake-holes appeared to be concentric with the former arc but to have a smaller radius (c. 4m). The latter stake-holes formed an arc running through c. 90o from south-west through east to north-east in Grids 4–6.

Immediately south-south-west of the post-hole arc, in Grids 1 and 10, are a number of shallow pits with surrounding arrangements of stake-holes, which might be interpreted as a possible working area. In Grids 4 and 7 lay a number of medium to large pits, from one of which was recovered a ground sandstone adze-head.

In the part of Area 1 lying south of Grids 1–9, archaeological evidence is less dense than in those former grids and is clustered around two large cut features: a large pit in Grid 14 and a large ditch running through Grids 17–20.

Area 1A
The cutting at Area 1A was positioned on what appeared to be the edge of the reef. To the west of this cutting the limestone bedrock and subsoil were mostly covered only by a fairly thin layer of topsoil (<0.4m thick), while Area 1A was positioned at a point along an irregular line where the subsoil slopes downwards steeply from the west to east and and became covered by a thick layer of silt. Excavation in this area consisted of a large box-section extending eastwards from the edge of the reef for a distance of c. 7m. Of several layers of silt overlying the sloping subsoil in this area, only one appeared to be archaeological, and this example was very rich in charcoal and finds of prehistoric pottery.

Area 1B
This area lay c. 7m east of the southern part of Area 1. It comprised only one feature, which had presented itself initially as a ring of bright red, burnt clay, c. 0.5m in diameter, abutting an outcrop of bedrock. The fills of this feature contained fragments of burnt clay and charcoal, while two layers of baked clay lined the interior of the cut, adhering to quartzite bedrock at north and subsoil at south. This feature was tentatively interpreted as a bowl furnace.

Area 1C
This area lay to the north-east of Area 1 and to the west and north of Area 1A. It measured a maximum of 35m long by 20m wide. Excavation in Area 1C centred on two substantial ditches measuring 12.4m x 3m x 0.4m deep and 11.4m x 1.82m x 1.16m deep respectively, which were roughly parallel and running from north-north-west to south-south-east. Worked flint and prehistoric pottery were recovered from within both of these. The south-west part of one ditch cut through a large pit (4.46m x 4.18m x 1.14m deep), from which worked flint was also recovered.

Area 2
Area 2 lay directly west of Area 1, separated from the latter by a long, narrow section of unstripped topsoil. This area was a maximum of 65m long by c. 8m wide. Area 2 was the excavated area closest to the reef proper, the perimeter of the exclusion zone lying only 4–5m to the west. The archaeology was sparser here than in Area 1, with truncation of features appearing to increase as one moved westwards up the slope.

The most notable feature in Area 2 was part of a large ditch that projected into Grid 29 from under the west baulk and terminated in Grid 30. Some 12m of this ditch’s length was visible (width 3.5m, depth 0.81m), and it was aligned roughly south-south-west/north-north-east. Several stake-holes were cut into the western side of the ditch near its upper break of slope. One section of this ditch cuts through a post-pipe, suggesting that there may have been a palisade fence within it. A number of possible stake-holes were recorded in the area around the terminal of this ditch, and a quantity of worked flint and chert was recovered from its fills. Most of these lithics were recovered in the terminal area of the ditch, adjacent to what may have been an entranceway.

Several pits farther north in this area also yielded lithic artefacts, with prehistoric pottery present in one example.

Area 2A
This small area lay c. 27m north of Area 2 and consisted of only two features—a burnt pit and a stake-hole. The burnt pit was subcircular in shape and c. 0.9m in diameter. The stake-hole lay c. 0.7m west-north-west of the pit. No finds were recovered in this area.

Area 3
Lying c. 65m north-east of Area 1C, Area 3 (c. 15m x 5m) consisted of two groups of contexts lying 7m from one another, both of which had been severely damaged by track machine activity. The more south-westerly feature was a large pit measuring 2.9m x 2.8m, the fill of which consisted largely of angular burnt sandstone fragments and charcoal-rich silt. This feature had been cut into the subsoil, which differed here from that on the reef in that the dominant inclusion was sandstone rather than limestone.

The group of features further to the north-east consisted of a group of pits and spreads. One of the pits had been severely truncated by digger activity but still showed evidence of in situ burning in the form of its orange colour. Its fill was composed mainly of charcoal-rich silt and angular fragments of burnt sandstone A stake-hole, which may have been structurally related to the pit, had been cut adjacent to the south-west edge of the latter. No finds were recovered in this area.

Area 4
This area lay c. 30m south-east of Areas 1 and 2. It consisted of a highly dispersed group of five features (subdivided into Areas 4A to 4E). Area 4A was a subcircular pit with a charcoal-rich fill; 4B, 4C and 4D were charcoal spreads, while 4E was another pit with a small charcoal deposit in its base. No finds were recovered in this area.

Area 5
This area lay c. 55m north-north-west of Area 2. The full extent of the archaeology here could not be established or excavated because of the presence of the site cabins at the north-east and the fence marking the exclusion zone of the registered monument at the south-west.

Monitoring of pipe-laying revealed a substantial mound of fulacht fiadh-type material. Removal of several slightly differing layers of this material revealed a quite complex arrangement of cuts, incised into the subsoil. Part of a large, gradually sloping cut (I) takes up the entire north-east quadrant of the cutting, sloping downwards to the north-east with a small area of its base visible in that corner. Four stake-holes had been cut along the top break of the slope of Cut I, and it was also cut on its west edge by part of a fairly shallow linear cut (II), which itself extended under the edge of the cutting at the west. At the south, a short linear cut (III) linked Cut I with Cut IV. Cut IV was a sharp-sided cut, rectangular in plan, measuring 2.22m x 1.81m x 0.4m deep. Cut into the base of IV on its north side was a circular, flat-based pit (V), while seven stake-holes were cut into the base of Cut IV, mostly adjacent to its bottom break of slope.

Finds
A ceramic assemblage, comprising 226 sherds, was recovered from Areas 1, 1A, 1C and 2. Two of these took the form of amorphous pieces of fired clay, probably indicating the production of pottery on or near the site, while the other 224 were pottery sherds, including examples of Early Neolithic, Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age wares.

Eighty-five stone artefacts were recovered, of which about fifteen are pieces of coarse stone that have been altered through grinding, while the rest are fragments of knapped flint and chert. Both cores and flakes were represented among the flint and chert, but only a few examples bear any evidence of retouching. The most notable lithic objects recovered were a ground sandstone adze-head and a leaf-shaped chert arrowhead, both from Area 1.

Other finds included small quantities of cremated and unburnt bone, a copper-alloy pin-shank recovered during monitoring, smelting slag, several iron fragments and a small deposit of burnt hazelnut shell.

3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry