County: Waterford Site name: DYSERT
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RMP 40:8 Licence number: 98E0226
Author: John Tierney, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Midden, Hearth and Field boundary
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 619059m, N 577593m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.950102, -7.722746
Monitoring of groundworks for the construction of two bungalows in a field adjacent to the ecclesiastical site in Ardmore produced a variety of archaeological remains. The monitoring licence was upgraded to an excavation licence, and three areas of archaeology were excavated over a three-week period. Folklore identified the development site as the burial-ground for the slaughtered inhabitants of Ardmore Castle, which was sacked in August 1642. A previous archaeological investigation in 1992 uncovered no archaeological remains.
Area 1 was 1.5m east–west by 5m and contained an as yet undated midden, composed of lenses of burnt clay, sandy sediments and organic-rich layers. Area 2 was 4m2 and encompassed the north-western quadrant of the site. A hearth and associated slot-trench were excavated in this area, and a number of flint flakes were recovered. Area 3 was 7m north–south by 6m and contained two perpendicular ditches of post-medieval date, along with a series of pits and slot-trenches of indeterminate function and date. As neither of the ditches evident in Area 3 is present on the first edition OS map, it is apparent that there have been significant boundary changes in Ardmore.
These investigations have refuted the folklore tradition that either Ardmore Castle or the siege burial-ground were originally situated in this field. By this process of elimination they also strengthen a hypothesis (Moore 1999) that Ardmore Castle was located to the north-east of the adjacent cathedral; further examination of the platform and scarp that Moore identifies as probable remnants of the castle introduces the possibility of the present rectory being built on the site of the castle.
Reference
Moore, M. 1999 Archaeological inventory of County Waterford. Dublin.
Editor’s note: The summary of this excavation, which was carried out during 1998, arrived too late for publication in the bulletin of that year.
Ballytrisnane, Old Parish, Co. Waterford
