County: Kilkenny Site name: Foulkscourt
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KK008–086 Licence number: 06E0038
Author: Franc Myles, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 628888m, N 667210m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.755175, -7.572050
This licence related to an assessment undertaken over a small area in the townland of Foulkscourt, 2km to the west of Johnstown. The site is the proposed location of an 02 telecommunications mast and is just the constraint circle of an unclassified enclosure.
The site was located on badly drained land within a forestry plantation at 119m OD. The immediate area of the proposed mast had been felled in recent years and is in the process of reverting to scrub, with lines of new saplings also in evidence.
There was no indication on the ground of the enclosure marked on the RMP, the area being covered with semi-mature timber and areas of felled forest. The area was walked again after some of the timber had been felled, but the enclosure was not located and may have been removed as part of the ground preparation for the plantation. It was located at c. 50m west of the proposed mast.
The assessment involved the mechanical excavation of three test-trenches across the site and was carried out on 8 March. The three trenches were opened by a tracked excavator with a 4ft grading bucket. Nothing of archaeological interest was recorded in the trenches, the stratigraphy being made up of 0.25m of peaty soil lying directly over a subsoil of glacial till.
