County: Clare Site name: Kilfenora
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E0709
Author: Red Tobin, 35 Brook Meadow, Avoca, Co. Wicklow.
Site type: Quarry
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 518202m, N 693940m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.989943, -9.218327
The site lies to the north of the village of Kilfenora and is largely founded on weathered limestone. This sheet limestone accommodated open-cast quarrying in the past, the stone from here being used in the construction of the church in Ennistymon. The extent of quarrying justified the abandonment of several of the proposed test-trenches. The southern portion of the proposed development area is located within the archaeological constraint area for the ecclesiastical remains at Kilfenora, CL016–015.
The results of the test-trenching revealed that the site did not contain any deposits or features of archaeological origin, but the site had been open-cast quarried for limestone. While the majority of this quarrying is likely to date to the early modern period, it remains a possibility that the area was quarried in antiquity for stone used in the construction of the early medieval Cathedral of Kilfenora.
