County: Kildare Site name: KILL HILL
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KD020-022001- Licence number: 03E1571
Author: Elizabeth Connolly, for Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.
Site type: Kiln
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 694730m, N 723429m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.252758, -6.580410
Site No. 3 at Kill Hill, Co. Kildare, was identified during centre-line testing for the N7 Naas Road Widening and Interchanges Scheme (No. 930, Excavations 2003, 03E1265) in August 2003. It was fully excavated in November 2003. The site was situated on a north-west-facing slope, north of Kill Hill, a Bronze Age enclosure. It was identified with three other sites in Kill Hill townland, all of which are, on preliminary analysis, of Bronze Age date.
The site was identified as a ribbon of burnt clay encircling an oval of redeposited natural subsoil with infrequent charcoal flecking. Excavation revealed that this was a shallow pit (0.2m deep by c. 1m long), roughly figure-of-eight in shape and oriented north-west/south-east. It was cut into natural subsoil. The more north-westerly of the ovals of the figure-of-eight was the larger, and it also had the more consistent concave base. The primary fill was a layer of red burnt clay 50–60mm thick. This deposit lined the cut on both base and sides, so that it appeared in pre-excavation plan as a ribbon encircling the redeposited natural.
The south-eastern oval had a depression at the base of the cut to the south-easternmost part of the feature. The depression was c. 0.35 in diameter and 0.15m in depth, and might have been the repository of a set of bellows. On preliminary analysis, the feature appears to be a form of kiln, of uncertain date.
8 Dungar Terrace, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
