County: Kerry Site name: MANOR WEST
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0049
Author: Frank Coyne, Aegis Archaeology Ltd, 16 Avondale Court, Corbally, Limerick.
Site type: Multi-phase prehistoric and early medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 485308m, N 613555m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.261733, -9.680159
Located on the eastern outskirts of Tralee on a limestone reef, this site is a Registered Monument (F94/6049). A total of 31 trenches were inserted on the site, all measuring 1.8m wide, making a total of 605.5 linear metres of trenches.
The lower area to the north and east of the limestone reef was tested by machine fitted with a flat grading bucket, the topsoil being removed and any archaeological features cleaned by hand. The reef at the time of testing was partially covered in a thick growth of scrub and bushes. These were removed under archaeological supervision, all bushes being cut at the base.
A series of trenches was opened on top of the reef. Because of the height of the underlying bedrock, the top sod was removed and any archaeological features cleaned by hand. A stone and earth bank traverses the top of the reef from south-west to north-east. A section was cut through this bank, in order to establish the nature of construction of the feature.
The archaeological features identified are located in two distinct areas: on the gently sloping plateau on the eastern side of the reef and in apparently isolated pits and grykes on the top of the limestone reef itself.
On the eastern side of the reef, particularly in Trenches 1–7 and 17–20, a high density of archaeological features was identified. Many of these were post-holes and small pits of varying sizes.
On top of the reef a series of pits, located in grykes in the bedrock, were identified. These contained charcoal, burnt bone and unburnt animal bone. These may have had a ritual function and again are probably prehistoric in nature. Similar pits were excavated at Ballycarty, where a ritual function is suggested, the most enigmatic being a pit which contained cremated bone, a bone from a barn owl and two dog molars (Connolly 1999, 63). Ballycarty is less than 4km to the east of the limestone reef at Manor.
In the light of the evidence from the test-trenching, it appears that substantial archaeological remains survive at Manor West and probably contain a combination of ritual and secular activity. It may also be suggested that this archaeological evidence may date from the prehistoric into the early medieval period.
This site was subsequently excavated by Francis Wilkinson under an extension to the testing licence (see No. 702 below).
Reference
Connolly, M. 1999 Discovering the Neolithic in County Kerry. Bray.
