County: Laois Site name: Palmershill 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: A015/125, E2234
Author: Ed Danaher, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd, 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda.
Site type: Pits, post-holes and drainage ditches
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 631764m, N 684712m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.912313, -7.527737
This site was located within Contract 2 of the proposed M7 Portlaoise to Castletown/M8 Portlaoise to Cullahill motorway scheme and was identified during advance testing by Robert O’Hara (Excavations 2005, No. 859, A015/029). Full resolution occurred in May 2006. Palmershill 1 consisted of a group of ten post-holes, three shallow pits and a series of modern drainage ditches. The majority of the posts and pits were located within one small area of the site but did not form any discernible pattern. There was no evidence to indicate when they originated but they pre-dated the ditches, which truncated two of them.
Numerous sherds of modern pottery and at least one small sherd of prehistoric pottery were retrieved from the field drains. No artefacts were found in association with any of the post-holes or pits exposed on site. Soil and charcoal samples currently await analysis.
