2006:993 - Ballykeoghan, Kilkenny

The site was uncovered during archaeological work for the NRA in advance of the N9/N10 Waterford to Powerstown scheme. In May 2006, three areas of excavation were opened in the vicinity of features uncovered in testing (A0032/01–08).
In Area 10 two rectangular cuttings were stripped of topsoil. One measured 256m2 and the second 2558m2. The feature uncovered in testing in the smaller cutting proved to be the remains of a root-hole for a large tree.
All of the archaeological features were uncovered in the larger trench. In the southern half of this cutting there was an area with eight small pits filled with light-grey silts. No datable finds were recovered from these features. In the north-western corner there were another nineteen earth-cut pits filled with darker grey and black silts. One of these produced a possible D-ware rim sherd (M. O’Donnell, pers. comm.). This group of pits was surrounded, to the north, south and west, by five distinctive oval pits filled with intense deposits of charcoal and burnt clay with burnt-clay bases. One pit produced an iron tool, possibly a gouge.
Some 16m east of these pits there was a large ‘figure-of-eight’ drying kiln, 3.1m long and 0.95m deep at the drying chamber. This kiln had two flues, one of which was in use first and was then blocked up. The first flue was orientated west–east and the second north–south.
One of the earth-cut pits in the north-west corner was cut by a later keyhole-shaped drying kiln, one of two on the site. The second kiln was in the centre of the cutting. Both of these kilns were orientated east–west, with their flues sloping upwards to the drying chambers
In Area 11 one cutting of 2385m2 was opened. The archaeological features were concentrated in the south-western corner of the trench. Here there was a linear setting of undressed limestone boulders, aligned south-west/north-east, with a rectangular earth-cut pit in its centre. The basal fill of the pit was black silt containing frequent charcoal and some burnt bone. A sherd of prehistoric pottery was recovered from this fill. In the area north of the stone alignment there were six small circular pits with vertical sides and flat bases which may have held post uprights.
Some 4m to the west there was a pair of slot-trenches. These were both L-shaped, extending south-west/north-east for 2m and then returning north-west/south-east for 0.5m. Both trenches had two post-pits, one at each end of their longer sections, and one of them had a third in the centre. Just east of the slot-trenches there was an earth-cut pit filled with a loose brown sandy silt and east of this again was a larger pit filled with a deposit of undressed limestone. A pit with a burnt base similar to those found in Site 10 was uncovered 1m north of these features and 14m to the north-east was a small oval earth-cut pit filled with a light-brown sandy silt which contained charcoal.
In Area 12 two cuttings were opened, each measuring 225m2. In one cutting the feature uncovered in testing proved to be a lens of natural material at the top of the underlying bedrock. In the second cutting there were the remains of planting holes and three small stake-holes.
Samples taken from the kilns, the various pits and the possible cremation pit in Site 11 are being processed for environmental analysis, cremated bone, metalworking debris and material for radiocarbon dating. Work is under way towards the production of both preliminary and detailed final reports on this site.