2003:1904 - KNOCKHOUSE LOWER (3), Waterford

An excavation was carried out between 13 and 24 March 2003 at Knockhouse Lower 3, Knockhouse Lower, Co. Waterford, on behalf of Waterford City Council in advance of the construction of the new N25 Waterford Bypass. The project was funded by the Irish government and part funded by the European Union under the National Development Plan 2000–2006 and was administered through Waterford City Council.

This site was originally identified between 26 February and 11 March 2002 following an assessment carried out during the initial assessment phase of works by Tara O'Neill (Excavations 2002, No. 1798, 02E0249). This assessment involved machine-assisted trial-trenching along the centre-line of the road with offsets at 45º angles at intervals of 30m on alternate sides. This site was assessed as part of Site B, which consisted of six fields and was originally identified as Area 9 within Site B, and was located along the Western Link Road from the N25 bypass. Site B was identified subsequent to the EIS as an area of high archaeological potential after a critical examination of the topographical nature of the scheme.

An area that measured 70m by 20m was stripped of topsoil by machine during the resolution phase of works. The remnants of four field boundaries/drains, a stone surface, two stone drains and an extremely shallow clay-and-stone-filled drain were exposed. The four field boundaries/drains all converged at the stone surface mentioned above. It would thus appear that the stone surface functioned as a causeway/pathway across the boundary ditches/drains. Finds recovered included modern glass, delft, fragments of earthenware, nails, clay pipes and two sherds of North Devon gravel-tempered ware. A small glass bead was, however, recovered from an engineering test-trench and not from a secure context. It would thus appear that this site was post-medieval to relatively modern in date.

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