County: Laois Site name: PARKNAHOWN (3)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A015/076
Author: Tara O’Neill, for Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 634178m, N 673689m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.813101, -7.493013
An excavation was carried out in response to an assessment, in advance of the proposed M7 Portlaoise–Castletown /M8 Portlaoise–Cullahill motorway scheme between October and November 2005. The work was carried out on behalf of Laois County Council and the National Roads Authority. This report describes the excavation of Parknahown 3 located on Contract 1. This site was identified as an enclosure site following the assessment of Testing Area 13 (see No. 902, Excavations 2005). Contract 1 of the project incorporated the Portlaoise–Cullahill section of the scheme, consisting of c. 14km of motorway, which extends from Aghaboe to south of Cullahill through the townlands from Gortnaclea to Oldtown. Parknahown 3 was located adjacent to and north of Cullahill Lane. It was located between Chainage 9935 and 21100 of the proposed scheme.
Topsoil-stripping on this site revealed part of a circular enclosure. The enclosure contained a number of silt deposits within its base. The upper fill represented a deliberate attempt to backfill the ditch and a sherd of late medieval pottery retrieved from its fill reveals that it was deliberately backfilled some time towards the end of the medieval period. Approximately 33% of this enclosure was located within the road-take and it measured 30m in diameter and reached a depth of 1.8m. Although a number of other features were excavated as part of this excavation, they all proved to be non-archaeological in nature. All of the samples from this site have yet to be analysed.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
