County: Wicklow Site name: BALLYHENRY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E1222 ext.
Author: Emmet Stafford, for ADS Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 727734m, N 698731m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.024010, -6.095921
In autumn 2001 testing was carried out by Ciara MacManus at Ballyhenry, Co. Wicklow, before construction of the N11 Newtownmountkennedy– Ballynabarny Road Scheme (Excavations 2001, No. 1329, 01E0832). The area had been selected for testing because of its low-lying, waterlogged location near a burnt-mound complex excavated by Catherine McLoughlin in Rathmore townland (Excavations 2001, No. 1380, 01E0471, and No. 1985, Excavations 2002).
A number of sites were identified during testing. One of these, a small deposit of heat-shattered stones, was excavated in December 2001 by Emmet Stafford (Excavations 2001, No. 1330, 01E1222). The subject of this report, a small burnt mound to the south of the original site, was excavated in January 2002.
Archaeological deposits were confined to an area measuring 16m east–west by 14m. The site was characterised by a small mound of heat-fractured stone in a charcoal-rich matrix that measured 10m east–west by 14m and was 0.3m in maximum depth. Significant amounts of quartz and sandstone were contained in this deposit, which otherwise consisted of a mix of glacial stones with a small proportion of decomposed granite. Some shallower deposits of burnt stone to the east of the mound appeared to have been washed clean of any charcoal inclusions.
The mound itself was cut by a number of modern drains and a shallow, irregularly rounded cut toward its centre.
The mound at Ballyhenry did not appear to have suffered significant post-depositional damage. The modern drains that cut through the feature were narrow and appeared to have been excavated by machine. However, despite the investigation of a large area around the mound, no obvious trough was identified during this excavation; if such a feature exists, it may lie to the east of the site, at the eastern edge of the realigned N11 road-take.
Although the morphology of the cut at the centre of the mound did not conform to the commonly accepted form of a burnt-mound trough, it could, if deepened by the addition of clay or leather sides, be used to hold water during heating. The feature was obviously cut through the deposit of burnt stone and must therefore post-date the original use of the mound. It was, however, situated between the two deepest points of the burnt mound, which suggests that burnt stone may have been cast from the cut to either side after a series of uses. It may therefore have functioned as a secondary trough, after the abandonment of an original feature unidentified during this excavation.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
