County: Kildare Site name: CORBALLY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0864 ext.
Author: Redmond Tobin, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 684199m, N 713030m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.161098, -6.740912
In August 2002 Kilsaran Concrete Products Ltd recommenced topsoil-stripping in Field 4 of this site. This was designed to facilitate the extraction of boulder clay. The area to be stripped was immediately to the south-east of the area excavated in 2001 (Excavations 2001, No. 631). It was thought that this area might reveal archaeology as the stripping approached the ridge crest and that the density of features would diminish on the south-eastern slope of the ridge. This proved to be the case, although the density of features on the ridge was quite surprising. The area extended 130m from the boundary fence with Field 3 and 110m south-east from the limits of the 2001 excavations.
A total of 40 features were identified during the stripping process: six fire-pits, eleven kilns, eight enclosures associated with the kilns, three major linear features, one well-defined barrow, three burials, two stone-filled pits, four other features and one non-antiquity. These features were revealed during the initial topsoil-stripping, but excavation revealed far more. The excavation was carried out under an extension to licence 01E0299 (see No. 899, Excavations 2002). All of these features were deemed to be an extension of the archaeological landscape as defined in 2001.
Topsoil-stripping also exposed a section of a large enclosure, which appeared to straddle the north-west boundary of the field. The presence of such an enclosure was suggested in 2001. The density of agri-industrial ephemera appeared to suggest that there was a definite focus to this activity, and it seemed likely that some form of settlement had existed on or adjacent to the crest of the ridge. The first manifestation of this enclosure was the fosse, which was exposed by machine during the topsoil-stripping and was over 5m wide. A burial was also partially exposed, and topsoil-stripping halted at that time. A buffer zone was established 30–35m from the north-west field boundary. This enclosure was assessed separately (see No. 900, Excavations 2002, 02E1310).
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
