County: Limerick Site name: ISLANDEA AND BLACKABBEY, ADARE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 21:152, 21:154, 21:155 Licence number: 04E1131
Author: Margaret McCarthy, Archaeological Services Unit, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 545615m, N 647250m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.573836, -8.802330
A test excavation was undertaken near Adare as part of a planning application for a large-scale housing development. The archaeological landscape in the development area includes three monuments listed in the RMP as enclosures. These sites have no surface indications but were identified from aerial photographs during a previous survey of the area in 1995 in advance of the Adare bypass.
The assessment entailed the excavation of six test-trenches to establish the existence or otherwise of the monuments. The exact location of the sites was set out from their marked position on the RMP map. The area around the circular enclosure 21:154 was cleared of undergrowth and two test-trenches were set out at right angles to each other across the centre of the presumed location of the monument. A similar arrangement of trenches was placed across the other circular enclosure, 21:152, and a possible rectangular enclosure, 21:155. There were no surface anomalies to indicate archaeological features. The trenches were excavated by mechanical excavator using a 2.2m-wide toothless bucket. The soil profile was homogenous in all areas and consisted of sod, a layer of topsoil and the underlying sterile boulder clay. Excavation in all three locations went below the natural boulder clay and the results showed that there was no evidence for any of the sites identified through aerial photography. The recovery of a polished stone axe at the location of one of the circular enclosures (21:154) is, however, indicative of prehistoric activity in the area.
