County: Kerry Site name: DINGLE: Goat Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E0099
Author: Simon Ó Faoláin, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 444507m, N 601473m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.143199, -10.271897
Monitoring of groundworks was carried out here in advance of the construction of housing, due primarily to the fact that the development site lies near the location of the medieval town wall of Dingle.
Monitoring commenced on 7 January 2003 and continued intermittently until 6 February. The area stripped in this phase was the majority of the site, from its north-western limit down to the line of the south-eastern access road. The area remaining to be monitored in Phase 2 is therefore confined to the south-eastern limit of the site. This latter area is that abutting the given route of the medieval town wall and thus has a relatively high archaeological potential.
The initial assessment of the site by Isabel Bennett noted that the field was divided into four ‘terraces’, as there were linear vertical drops between the four sections as one moved downhill. Topsoil removal revealed that these linear drop-offs were originally field boundaries and that soil migration had built up the level on the upslope sides of their banks, thereby producing the noted terraced appearance. Preliminary examination of the ditches corresponding to these banks produced post-medieval material, mostly consisting of blue-and-white china.
Only one likely archaeological feature was noted during monitoring, a circular pit with burnt fill. This was excavated on 21 January. It was found to be a cut measuring 1.15m by 0.95m and 0.22m deep. It contained two fills, the lower of which contained moderate amounts of charcoal. Samples were taken and sieved but nothing suitable for dating was recovered. No finds were recovered during excavation of the pit.
Tralee, Co. Kerry
