County: Limerick Site name: GRANGE EAST
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0310
Author: Sarah McCutcheon, Limerick County Council
Site type: Burnt spread
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 570354m, N 650499m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.604940, -8.437657
The N24 Tipperary Road-Widening Scheme was processed under Part X of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Regulations 1994. The recommendations from the National Monuments and Historic Properties Service included monitoring of topsoil-stripping in relation to this scheme. The burnt spread at Grange East was detected in the course of this work and was fully excavated within the area of the contract.
The burnt spread consisted of a compact layer of heat-shattered stone and charcoal within blackened, carbonised clay. It incorporated an area of 20m (west-north-west/east-south-east) x 7.5m within the area of the excavation. To the north and east it was bounded by peat, and to the west it was bounded by marl. The spread overlay these natural layers and had an average depth of 0.16m and a maximum depth of 0.23m. It contained the remains of a number of plough furrows. There was no trough nor any other cut features directly associated with the burnt spread. Three small stake-holes were found to post-date it.
The area beyond the southern limit of excavation was probed to ascertain the full extent of the site. The full dimensions as detected were 24.5m north–south x 21.5m. As with the excavated area, there were no surface indications of the burnt spread south of the limit of excavation.
PO Box 53, County Buildings, 79/84 O’Connell Street, Limerick
