County: Limerick Site name: BALLYGRENNAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0368
Author: Emmet Byrnes, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Field system, Cultivation ridges, Kiln - corn-drying, Pit and Metalworking site
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 563173m, N 633977m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.456010, -8.541844
Excavation was carried out on a site at Ballygrennan, Co. Limerick, as part of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West project (Section 3: Gort to Goatisland). The site was recorded in the SMR as an earthwork (40:6), and during the monitoring of topsoil-stripping a series of features, charcoal-rich material and in situ burning were noted, extending over an area of c. 100 by 30m.
The excavation, which took place between 6 April and 17 September 2002, revealed a variety of features associated with medieval rural settlement. Five spatially differentiated phases of activity were identified across the site. The earliest phase was represented by a series of intercutting gullies and ditches, which in one area formed a subrectangular enclosure consistent with a small field system.
The second phase of activity took place to the south of this enclosure and consisted of two overlying episodes of cultivation, one with the furrows running east–west, the other with the furrows running north–south.
Three unusual corn-drying kilns represented the third phase of activity. The kilns, which were earth-dug oval features 2.7–5.5m long, 1.2–2m wide and 0.22–0.27m deep, were partly lined with stone flags along the sides and base but had no defined flue. Carbonised grains, provisionally identified as bread wheat and barley, were recovered from all three features.
The fourth phase was represented by 22 irregular oval pits, in what appears to have been a naturally waterlogged area. The pits measured 0.4–1.7m in diameter and were 0.06–0.5m deep, filled with substantial volumes of carbonised grain, provisionally identified as bread wheat.
The fifth phase of activity was associated with metalworking. In an area to the north of the small subrectangular enclosure, over sixteen oval pits were excavated. They measured 0.2–0.8m in diameter and had rounded bases, in places partly oxidised. Small fragments of slag were recovered from the fill of several of them, and one produced an intact furnace base. A hearth, two areas of cobbling and a series of post- and stake-holes were also associated with these features.
Finds from the site included an iron sickle, a tanged iron knife, an iron chisel and sherds of both glazed and unglazed 13th-/14th-century pottery.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
