County: Kilkenny Site name: DUKESMEADOWS, Kilkenny
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 19:27, 19:35 environs Licence number: 02E1237
Author: Paul Stevens, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Fulachta fia
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 651689m, N 655083m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.644493, -7.236208
Excavation was undertaken in July 2002 after the discovery of a site during monitoring by Sinéad Phelan of the construction of the Dukesmeadows spoil dump site for the Kilkenny Flood-Relief Scheme (No. 1023, Excavations 2002, 01E0821).
Excavation revealed the site to be conjoined Middle and Late Bronze Age fulachta fiadh, consisting of a single, irregular, sprawling, denuded burnt mound, with four circular or ovoid troughs and a number of other, smaller, ephemeral features. Three lithic artefacts were also recovered, including a broken plano-convex knife of Antrim flint and two chert cores from the southern periphery of the burnt mound.
The site was at the edge of the south-western flood-plain of the River Nore, on a small ridge of natural boulder clay, enhanced to produce a flat platform. Trough A, to the south of the site, was a backfilled oval pit, partially lined with clay, at the south-east end of the mound. Trough B1 was a shallow ovoid or rectangular pit at the northern end of the site, possibly originally lined with wicker, as evidenced by an arc of stake-holes. This was cut and truncated to the south by Trough B2, a larger, deeper, oval, flat-bottomed trough containing residues of partially shattered stone and charcoal. The trough was obviously open for some time and contained roots and straw from pondweed. Trough C was south of the mound, close to Trough A, and was an ovoid pit with a sandy silt deposit at the base, indicating that the trough was open for a time before being backfilled. Trough D was a very shallow pit adjacent to Trough A and may have been a firing pit rather a trough.
Analysis of charcoal from this site by L. O’Donnell revealed that eight species, of largely young branches, were used across the site: alder, birch, hazel, ash, apple-type, elm, oak and yew. Two radiocarbon samples were submitted to Glasgow University. A 2-sigma date of cal. 1390–1010 BC (GU-10559) was produced from Trough A, and a 2-sigma date of cal. 1920–1630 BC (GU-10560) was obtained from Trough B1. These suggested that there were in fact two sites, one with an incutting trough complex that was left open for some time. Several hundred years later, a second site immediately to the south was built, with two or three troughs.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
