County: Carlow Site name: BALLYBAR LOWER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A021/060
Author: Joanne Hughes, Headland Archaeology Ltd, Unit 4b, Europa Enterprise Park, Midleton, Co. Cork.
Site type: Prehistoric
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 672203m, N 671033m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.785479, -6.929633
A large number of features extending across an area measuring c. 500m long and 60m wide were identified in several of the excavated test-trenches in this area during Contract 3 testing on the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford road scheme. They consisted of burnt mounds, charcoal spreads, post- and stake-holes, pits, as well as numerous drainage ditches and cultivation furrows. A small number of these features were sample-excavated, and prehistoric pottery was recovered from one of the charcoal spreads located close to the northern side of a field boundary. No definite structure or pattern could be identified in the arrangement of the post- and stake-holes, but a prehistoric date is assumed for the majority of these features. The landowner informed us that the lowest-lying portions of the field flooded annually and the drainage ditches could be related to reclamation works conducted here in 1959.
