County: Kerry Site name: KNOCKBRACK (Site AR02)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0965
Author: Graham Hull, TVAS Ireland Ltd.
Site type: Furnace and Metalworking site
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 507630m, N 621318m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.335693, -9.355405
An iron-smelting furnace was found, characterised by a slag-rich fire pit and flue with two crucibles/moulds embedded into the natural geology, on the N21 Castleisland–Abbeyfeale road improvement scheme. A number of pits located nearby also appeared to be related. Large amounts of iron slag and fragments of burnt clay (collapsed furnace wall) were recovered, but these have not yet been analysed.
The furnace could very possibly be medieval or earlier. Radiocarbon dating of the charcoal recovered will be important in placing this monument into a national metalworking chronology.
A charcoal production site 2.6km to the northeast was excavated by Kate Taylor as part of this road project (see No. 767, Excavations 2004, 04E0975). A single radiocarbon date indicates that oak charcoal was being produced in large quantities on the south bank of the River Feale in the last centuries of the first millennium AD. Charcoal is an essential component for winning metal from ore and it is tempting to see a link between the two sites.
Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare
