County: Kildare Site name: BALLYKANE HILL, Kilrainy
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KD003-026 Licence number: 04E1318
Author: Linda G. Lynch, Aegis Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Barrow - ring-barrow
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 665691m, N 740335m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.409056, -7.011988
An excavation was undertaken on a ring-barrow on the summit of Ballykane Hill. This excavation occurred as a result of the proposed extension of the existing Kilsaran Concrete Ltd quarry at Kilrainy. Although significant surface remains of this site were preserved prior to the archaeological investigation, this ring-barrow had not previously been recorded. The results of the excavation carried out from September to October 2004 confirm the site as a ring-barrow, comprising a mound surrounded by a ditch and an external bank, with an entrance to the southwest. The maximum external diameter of the site was 22m north-south. Finds included worked flints, copper-alloy fragments, unburnt and cremated animal bone and cremated human bone. The area excavated measured 25m north-south by 22m.
A full assessment of the findings of the excavation, as well as the post-excavation analysis of the human and animal remains, the bone and stone artefacts and the metals recovered from the site is currently being undertaken.
16 Avondale Court, Corbally, Limerick
