County: Kerry Site name: ARDFERT: Ardfert Cathedral
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KE020–046 Licence number: CO55
Author: Laurence Dunne and Karen Buckley, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Ecclesiastical enclosure
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 478536m, N 621181m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.328797, -9.782070
Monitoring of minor ground-disturbance works was undertaken beside Ardfert Cathedral on behalf of the DEHLG. Ardfert Cathedral is a national monument ecclesiastical complex that is located within the medieval town of Ardfert, KE020–046. The monitoring was undertaken over two phases and is related to the construction of a post-and-wire fence and an electrical services trench at the west and north-western limits of Temple na Griffin.
Phase 1, in July 2006, required monitoring of 30 hand-excavated post-holes for a proposed security fence and monitoring of two short hand-dug ESB service trenches. Phase 2, in September, involved monitoring of machine-excavated ESB service trenches and the surface cleaning, by mini-digger, at the site of the former 19th-century Protestant church to the south-west of Temple na Griffin.
In Phase 1 some 30 hand-dug post-holes were monitored, with average dimensions of 0.5–0.6m in diameter and 0.5m in depth. Sixteen of the post-holes contained human and animal bone in small broken fragments. The bone will be treated within the wider extensive corpus material in the forthcoming publication of Ardfert Cathedral by Fionnbar Moore of the DEHLG. A large sherd of post-medieval gravel-tempered ware was also recorded in one of the post-holes to the north of Temple na Hoe.
Two small ESB service trenches were excavated by hand immediately adjacent to the western wall of Temple na Griffin on its exterior and interior, with the former measuring 1.3m by 0.5m by 0.4m deep and the latter measuring 1.1m by 0.75m by 0.5m. The fill of the two minor cuttings comprised loose introduced fill. Nothing of archaeological significance was recorded.
In Phase 2 a north–south ESB service trench, with east–west offshoots at either end, was excavated by mini-digger to the west of the graveyard boundary wall. The cutting measured 0.8m in width and 0.6m in depth. The trench was composed of modern layers of stone and concrete to overlying natural soft yellow/brown silty clay. The cutting was archaeologically negative.
Two deep pits were dug, by JCB, to the immediate north of the site of the former Protestant church. The holes were 1.6m and 2.2m long and measured 1.75m and 1.25m in depth. Nothing of archaeological interest was recorded in them.
Surface cleaning of the pervasive overgrowth across the former Protestant church exposed 41 dressed stone fragments relating entirely to that church, erected in 1871 and demolished in 1945.
3 Lios na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee, Co. Kerry
