County: Kerry Site name: DROMTHACKER, Tralee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 97E0022
Author: Margaret McCarthy, Archaeological Services Unit Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 485850m, N 616478m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.288112, -9.673213
Monitoring was undertaken at the Tralee Institute of Technology in December 2002 and January 2003. The development involved the construction of a nurse training centre and an incubation unit at the North Campus, to the east of the existing Hotel, Catering and Tourism building. Investigation of several known and potential monuments was carried out by Rose M. Cleary in 1997 before the construction of the main campus (Excavations 1997, No. 242).
Most of the ground disturbance took place in the area of the proposed nurse training centre, immediately east of the existing canteen building. A limited amount of ground disturbance took place farther east, in the area of the proposed incubation unit. The monitored area measured c. 100m2. The topsoil was 0.4–0.6m deep and was removed to reveal a light orange, natural, sandy clay with occasional pockets of grey clay. A number of relatively modern finds were recovered, including glass sherds and delft. Topsoil was also removed from a temporary roadway extending north of the site. It measured c. 190m north–south by 5m. No archaeo-logical finds or features were noted in this area.
Five engineering test-pits were excavated in the area of the proposed incubation unit. These were c. 2m long and more than 1m deep. The stratigraphy in all trenches consisted of a layer of topsoil overlying a layer of orange subsoil, 0.2m deep, which in turn overlay a light to mid-brown boulder clay. No archaeological finds or features were noted in any of the test-pits.
Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
