2002:0170 - KILBRECKAN (BGE 3/18/3), Clare

This site was examined as part of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West project. It lay on level ground, formerly used as pasture, near the summit of Kilbreckan hill. Kilbreckan Lough is visible c. 250m to the south-south-west. The town of Ennis is also visible, c. 2.5km to the north-west.

An arc of four post-holes and two larger post-holes or pits were excavated. Contemporaneity between the features was suggested by the similarity of fills, the artefacts recovered and the spatial arrangement of the post-holes/pits. Twenty-eight pieces of later post-medieval pottery and three pieces of clay tobacco pipe were recovered from the stripped ground surface in the immediate vicinity of the excavated features.

The post-holes were typically oval, measuring c. 0.4–0.8m across and 0.24–0.33m deep. Post-medieval pottery was recovered from two of the post-holes. The two larger features were circular, 1m and 1.3m in diameter, and 0.65m and 0.42m deep. Post-medieval pottery, a copper-alloy button and a fragment of a clay tobacco pipe were recovered.

The four definite post-holes may have been part of a larger arc, but this was not possible to establish. The projected diameter of any post-hole circle would have been c. 20m.

The function of the large, possibly circular, timber structure of 19th-century date is not readily apparent. No industrial material was found, and the artefacts recovered indicate domestic activity. The archaeological deposits suggest a brief phase of activity, and further analysis of the finds should provide a very focused chronology for the site. Examination of cartographic and documentary evidence, it is hoped, will provide a better under-standing of this enigmatic site. Some provisional interpretations of the site are as a fair, a political rally point or a military post or station. Perhaps a very large marquee or a stage platform would leave below-ground evidence similar to that found here.

2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin