County: Waterford Site name: KNOCKHOUSE UPPER (Site 7)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0274 ext.
Author: Aidan O'Connell, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 659453m, N 612019m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.256667, -7.129167
Additional testing was undertaken at Site 7, Field 2, in advance of the N25 Waterford Bypass. A centre-line trench was formerly excavated in this area by Deirdre Murphy in 2002 (Excavations 2002, 1799, 02E0274), but permission had been refused by the landowner for the excavation of the offset trenches. The licence was reactivated in April 2003 and the assessment completed.
Eight offset trenches were initially opened with the aid of a mechanical excavator. They were placed 30m apart and aligned at an angle of 45% from the backfilled centre-line trench. The offsets ranged in length from 24m to 128m. A stone handaxe was recovered from the topsoil in one of the trenches (Trench 4).
Two extra offset trenches (110m and 122m long) and eleven additional trenches (4.5–20m long) that were aligned perpendicular to the offset trenches were also excavated to determine the nature and extent of a number of potential archaeological features. The only features recorded were field drains, cultivation furrows and root boles.
The work was funded by the National Development Plan and administered through the National Roads Authority.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
