County: Wexford Site name: KILMOKEA: Kilmokea House
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 39:18 Licence number: 02E0071
Author: Emmet Stafford, Stafford McLoughlin Archaeology
Site type: Ecclesiastical enclosure
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 704718m, N 621701m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.336916, -6.463338
Testing in response to a request for further information was undertaken on 26 January 2002 at Kilmokea, Great Island, Co. Wexford. A number of archaeological features were identified during the assessment of the proposed development, which is in a small subtriangular field just inside the eastern boundary of the ecclesiastical enclosure of Kilmokea.
Most notably, a ditch and bank identified in Trench 1 appeared to represent the enclosure earthworks. The features were, however, identified immediately outside the area of construction and were preserved in situ. The ditch was observed to be 6.1m wide where uncovered. Its upper fill was a light grey soil containing frequent inclusions of slaty stone. To the west of the ditch the remains of the bank were also uncovered, which had been disturbed at this point by the construction of an unmortared stone boundary wall. The bank, which was composed of a compact, bright orange, sandy material, survived to a height of 0.6m above subsoil level and was 4.2m wide.
As a response to the identification of these features, a condition that monitoring take place of all groundworks associated with the development was included in the final grant of planning. This was undertaken on various dates in August and September 2002. Most of the work involved the removal of sod layers and ploughsoil before the introduction of fill material onto site. As these groundworks did not involve the removal of basal ploughsoil, no disturbance of archaeological features occurred, and the features identified during the site assessment were preserved in situ.
Unit 4, Enniscorthy Enterprise Centre, Milehouse Road, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford
