County: Kerry Site name: BALLYMAKEGOGE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KE028–074 Licence number: 06E0690
Author: Niamh O’Callaghan, Barrow Archaeological Services
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 477126m, N 615553m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.277914, -9.800689
Pre-development testing was undertaken on a proposed single-house development partly located within the zone of archaeological potential for an enclosure at Ballymakegoge, The Spa, Tralee. Six test-trenches were excavated across the site with a view to establishing the outer limit of archaeological material associated with the enclosure in order to set a suitable buffer zone and to establish if any previously unrecorded archaeological features were located on the proposed development site.
The outer bank and ditch and inner ditch of a bivallate ringfort were recorded in two trenches. Trench 1 was located 1.6m east of the base of the visible bank of the enclosure; it measured 18m long, 1.25m wide and 0.25–0.45m deep. Topsoil comprised dark-brown silt with small stones and natural subsoil was an orange/yellow clay. The upper surface of three archaeological features were recorded in the trench: the inner ditch enclosing the visible bank was found to be 5m wide and filled with stony mid-brown silt; the outer bank was located 0.25m below the sod layer, composed of redeposited yellow and white clay subsoil, and was 5m wide; the outer ditch was found to be 2m wide and filled with mid-brown stony silt. There were no features located beyond the outer ditch.
Trench 2 was located 7.5m south of Trench 1 and 3m east of the visible bank of the ringfort; it measured 23m long, 1.25m wide and 0.3–0.4m deep and results were similar to those found in Trench 1.
Sandy Lane, Barrow, Ardfert, Co. Kerry
