County: Kilkenny Site name: WETLANDS
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0652
Author: Tom Rogers, Moore Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 649359m, N 654518m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.639630, -7.270710
Testing took place in the townland of Wetlands on the south-western edge of Kilkenny. The site lies within an area zoned as residential in the Kilkenny Western Environs Local Area Plan. The archaeological assessment of the Local Area Plan identified two features of archaeological potential (Sites 8 and 9) within the subject site. Both appeared on the ground as gentle dips within an arable field and both appear on the first-edition OS map as depressions, Site 9 being labelled 'gravel pit'.
Both sites were tested by a machine fitted with a toothless grading bucket. A 50m trench was excavated across Site 9 revealing a mid-brown silty clay overlying a red/orange boulder clay. In the centre of this trench a grey clay was mixed with some modern iron objects. A second trench was excavated across Site 8. Here topsoil overlay boulder clay on either side of the feature but in the centre of the trench there was a considerable dip, which was filled with modern debris to a depth of c. 2.5m, below which it was not possible to excavate.
It was concluded that Sites 8 and 9 are both gravel pits, the former of which was used as a rubbish tip in the mid-20th century.
Corporate House, Ballybrit Industrial Estate, Galway
