County: Kilkenny Site name: BALLYNAMONA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0178
Author: Joanna Wren, for ADS Ltd.
Site type: Kiln
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 662167m, N 615674m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.289216, -7.088735
Pre-development testing for the National Roads Authority took place on the route of the N25 Waterford Bypass. The site is in the townland of Ballynamona, two fields north of the main settlement in that area. Testing revealed the remains of post-medieval field systems, cultivation ridges, laneways, drainage works and a group of ovens/kilns. These occurred in a cluster just east of a water-filled ditch that may be a tributary of a stream in Ballynamona shown on the 1764 Richards and Scalé map of Waterford city and environs. They appeared as spreads of oxidised clay and charcoal, too complex to be simple hearths, and four of them were interpreted as the remains of clay bake-ovens.
Similar ovens were found during excavations in Waterford city (Hurley and Scully et al. 1997, 274), ranging in date from the 13th to the 17th century. Indeed bake-ovens built into the walls of houses were common up until the early 20th century. The testing at this site did not uncover the remains of any buildings into which the ovens had been built, and it is quite likely they were open-air structures. Another feature, with a still larger and more complex structure, was interpreted as the remains of a rudimentary kiln. It probably formed part of the same complex as the ovens. These features and their hinterlands will be subject to more extensive investigation and excavation before construction.
Reference
Hurley, M. and Scully, O.M.B. 1997 Late Viking Age and medieval Waterford: excavations 1986–1992. Waterford.
The Mile Post, Waterford
