County: Kilkenny Site name: BALLYTARSNA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 21:7 Licence number: 00E0557
Author: Maurice F. Hurley
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 667365m, N 658847m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.676600, -7.003826
It is proposed to build a new house on a rectangular road-fronting site at Ballytarsna, Co. Kilkenny. The site is c. 85m x 53m. The planning permission from Kilkenny County Council required an archaeological assessment to ‘be based on documentary research, fieldwork and on the excavation of a number of test-trenches’.
The house was to be located within the zone of potential of a recorded monument, an ‘enclosure’. The enclosure was not apparent on the ground, and the curve of the adjacent field fence was the only tangible surface indication of its existence.
The testing revealed that there was no diagnostic evidence for the existence of an ancient enclosure on the site of the proposed development. If the curved field fence represents part of an ‘enclosure’, then the arc, if projected, indicates that the ‘enclosure’ is largely to the east of the site of the proposed dwelling. The greater part of this ‘enclosure’ was exploited as a quarry until recent years. The quarry was recently backfilled. There was no evidence for archaeological features or artefacts on the site of the proposed house.
312 Bruach na Laoi, Union Quay, Cork
