2001:533 - COOLGARRIV (Site 2), Aghadoe, Kerry

Licensed monitoring of all groundworks associated with the development of twelve detached houses at Coolgarriv, Aghadoe, Killarney, was undertaken in December 2000–February 2001 (Excavations 2000, No. 426, 00E0919). Three areas of archaeological potential were uncovered and three separate excavation licences were obtained. The following relates to the excavation of Site 2, consisting of burnt mound material, a post-medieval field boundary and a road.

Site 2 measured 15m north–south by 5m. Large drains measuring 2m in width by 3m in depth defined the eastern and southern limits of the site. A small deposit of burnt mound material was located toward the northern end of the site; this was defined in the south by a field boundary dating to the 1840s. This area consisted predominantly of layers of peat overlain by deposits of burnt mound material. There was an additional burnt deposit toward the south of the site, which lay directly north of a previously excavated fulacht fiadh (see Excavations 2001, No. 554). The removal of this deposit and two underlying layers exposed a linear alignment of large flat-topped sandstones, which appear to have formed a trackway leading toward the fulacht fiadh (No. 554). The road identified was post-medieval in date and is illustrated on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1841, by which time it had already been abandoned, replaced by a road currently defining the southern limits of the development. The road was composed of three separate stone surfaces, indicating several episodes of repair. It was later cut during the construction of a field boundary sometime after the 1840s.

3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry