County: Carlow Site name: BUSHERSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E2581 (E2580)
Author: Angus Stephenson, Headland Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 677583m, N 675602m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.825789, -6.848798
The site was excavated as part of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford scheme: Kilcullen to Powerstown. This group of sites in Busherstown lies close to Busherstown House, a late 17th- or early 18th-century farmhouse, described as of regional importance in the NIAH Catalogue (Reg. No. 10300721), on the west side of the road-take zone, and to a group of ecclesiastical remains, including a bullaun stone (CW008–017) and a disused walled graveyard (CW007–032) on the east side.
The features in the southern half of this field, in the first instance associated with the ecclesiastical remains, were excavated under Ministerial Direction A021/023, whilst those in the northern part of the field associated with the prehistoric ring-ditch identified by geophysical survey were excavated under Ministerial Direction A021/022 (E2580). The geophysical survey also noted that ‘findings from the southern part of the field included weak linear features, possibly caused by cultivation, and some magnetic anomalies perhaps indicating pits or hollows’. The combined area of the two parts of the field was c. 28,000m2.
Testing under Ministerial Direction numbers A021/022 and A021/023 on this site in 2005 (Excavations 2005, Nos 72 and 73) recorded four separate areas of archaeological activity, which were called Areas A–D.
Area A included the remains of a hollow way initially identified during the course of an environmental impact statement field inspection. Foundation levels of this feature were exposed during test-trenching. This hollow way is depicted on the first-edition OS map of the area as a tree-lined avenue leading from the grounds of Busherstown House. In the field it is aligned with an arched gateway located immediately to the north of the house, which is of 17th-century construction. This route may have provided access to the church site in both its earlier and later phases of use.
Area B included a deep ditch located immediately west of the curving field boundary and was initially identified during the geophysical survey. No datable artefacts were recovered from sections across the ditch, although it was suggested that it may have formed part of an enclosure for ecclesiastical remains. The church in the adjacent field to the east was at least of medieval date, being mentioned in the 14th-century Register of Kilmainham. Bullaun stones are often indicative of Early Christian sites and an earth-fast block of granite example stands close to the walled graveyard. This allows the possibility, at least, that the first church was also of this date.
Area C included a datable post-medieval ditch, which adjoined the curving ditch beside the field boundary on the same alignment as the hollow way.
Area D comprised a broad scatter of features of possible prehistoric origin. No structural forms were evident within the pattern of distribution of these remains.
Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park, Little Island, Cork
