2002:0794 - FARRANSTACK, Kerry

This excavation relates to the start of work on the Listowel Regional Water Supply Scheme, Stage 4, undertaken by Kerry County Council. In an archaeological impact assessment, concern was expressed over the potential impact on a monument at Farranstack, Lisselton, SMR 5:95, recorded as a fulacht fiadh site. There is a problem with this classification, possibly resulting from a mapping error in the SMR. It seems that the site of the recorded fulacht fiadh is further upslope, outside the western gable of a modern farm building, and was destroyed by the landowner some twenty years ago during the construction of a trackway. The landowner can recall the exact nature and location of the spread, which consisted of the typical black soil and shattered stones characteristic of these monuments.

However, the area marked for this fulacht fiadh is of archaeological potential for another reason. The landowner states that around 40 years ago, during field drainage works, the excavating dragline revealed an earth-dug tunnel, c. 18m long, running diagonally downslope. It was not followed at the time, and the light of a torch would not penetrate the extent of it. The landowner further states that an old man in the area had told him that he had been down in beehive cells and tunnels in the same spot a number of times. In effect, it seems that SMR 5:95 should be reclassified as a possible souterrain site and not a fulacht fiadh.

The testing was undertaken on 4 December 2002 to establish whether the pipeline route and its wayleave would impinge on this possible souterrain. The centre-line of the pipeline route was surveyed by one of the resident engineers on the Water Supply project, and all of the archaeologist’s measurements were based on this centre-line. The landowner indicated, to the best of his recollection, the area where the earth-cut tunnels were encountered. The area tested formed a rectangle 30m long along the route of the pipeline and 15m in either direction from the location indicated by the landowner. The tested area was 10m wide, the width of the wayleave allowed for pipe-laying works and thus the area within which any archaeology present was likely to be affected. The test area was stripped of topsoil by a mechanical digger with a flat bucket. The topsoil was mostly quite thin (<0.3m), coming down onto a very mottled, grey/orange/brown, clayey silt with many limestone inclusions. Aside from one field boundary and several field drains, nothing was encountered.

After this, the route of the pipeline trench was excavated, as souterrains can be buried quite deep in the subsoil. The trench was excavated to a depth of 1.4m and was 1.4m wide. Again, nothing archaeological was encountered.

3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry