County: Wexford Site name: ASK (Site 34)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WX007-021 Licence number: A003/022
Author: Paul Stevens, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Ringfort - rath, Burnt pit and Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 717413m, N 661891m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.695420, -6.262959
Excavation of a site in Ask, Co. Wexford, was carried out in June 2005 as part of the mitigation of the proposed route of the N11 Gorey–Arklow link. Excavation of this site produced three small clusters of features, consisting of a number of random pits and post-holes, one large burnt pit with multi-reuses and a small (?single use) burnt mound and trough. The site was located on the south-west slopes of Ask Hill, overlooking a small valley and adjacent to a ploughed-out earthen ringfort marked on early OS maps, immediately east of the site outside the CPO line. Two other sites (Sites 35 and 36, excavated by Bruce Sutton) are also located to the north of Site 34.
The subrectangular trough measured 1.5m in length (north-west/south-east), by 1.6m and 0.45m in depth, with a base that contained a pair of stake-holes at each corner, forming a roughly rectangular or parallelogram alignment c. 1m by 0.6m, possibly reflecting a removed wicker or plank lining. Each corner contained a larger stake-hole paired with smaller angled stake-holes representing braces. The trough was sealed by several layers of pyrolithic burnt-mound backfill; i.e. dark, firm, charcoal-rich clayey silt with fire-cracked sandstone. The upper fill and burnt-mound spread measured 4.1m in length east–west by 3m, by 0.1–0.02m in depth and represented part of a larger mound pushed in as the site was abandoned. The site was obviously only in use for a short period of time, as the mound is relatively small and was subsequently levelled and backfilled using the mound material. The site may also have been truncated due to later agricultural activity.
The second major feature was a burnt pit complex, recut up to four times and used as a fire pit at least twice, measuring 0.57–2.2m (east–west) by 0.23–1.2m by 0.4–0.48m in depth, with intermittent fills of loose sandy clay, pebbles and charcoal or charcoal-rich silt.
No evidence of date was produced for any of the features on this site and it is by no means certain if all, or even some, are related to each other or contemporary. However, radiocarbon dates will be recovered for both burnt pit and burnt mound.
Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny
