2007:725 - TRALEE, Kerry

Testing and monitoring was undertaken of a major infrastructural project on behalf of Kerry County Council within Tralee town. The Kerry regional broadband project will initially construct metropolitan area rings, designed for multiple operator use, in four urban locations: Castleisland, Killarney, Listowel and Tralee. The proposed broadband infrastructure consists of four-way 110mm telecoms ducting, sub-ducts, fibres, chambers, fibre management equipment, co-location units, connections and all associated ancillary works. The trench for the four-way ducting was generally 450mm wide with a maximum depth of 1m. The route of the duct was predominantly along public roads, with some routing along footways and grassed areas.

The proposed trench route for the four-way ducting traversed the zone of archaeological potential for Tralee town, KE029–119, as well as its immediate environs. The proposed trench route also passed in close proximity to the location of a number of monuments: KE029–095, Dromthacker (enclosure), and KE029–120, Cloonalour (ringfort), are 15m from the proposed route, while KE029–094, Dromthacker (enclosure), and KE029–157:01–05, Ratass (church, ogham stone, armorical stone, cross slab and graveyard), are 20m and 35m from the proposed route respectively.

Test cuttings were opened in tandem with the opening of the trench for the broadband infrastructure along the route within the archaeological constraint zones of the recorded monuments KE029–119 and KE029–157 (see below). Monitoring was undertaken for the remainder of the project, as these areas had been previously monitored or severely impacted on by works in the recent past.

Testing along the north-east end of Denny Street (near the site of the Great Castle of Tralee) revealed occupational layers beneath modern deposits of tarmac, limestone gravel and decayed red sandstone gravel with a combined depth of 0.32m were recorded. A dark-greyish-brown silty clay with inclusions of occasional charcoal flecks, oyster-shell fragments and animal bone was underlying the modern deposits and had an exposed depth of 0.3m. Displaced limestone rubble stones and one sandstone rubble stone, probably relating to the Great Castle, were revealed at the base of the trench. The recorded stones did not comprise a coherent mortared mass of demolished masonry but loose collapse or tumble of some unknown association.

The broadband route ran c. 4m south of the southern boundary wall of the graveyard of KE029–157, Ratass. The test cuttings were opened immediately in advance of the broadband trench. Modern layers of tarmac, limestone trunking, rubble infill and sterile natural yellowish-orange subsoil were recorded on both faces of the trench section. Eircom service cables and water pipes were also visible within the trench. No archaeological deposits, stratigraphy or artefacts were recorded within the trench.

Monitoring of trenches within KE029–119 recorded a 19th-century cobbled surface in both section faces of the trench which ran down the west side of the Ashe Memorial Hall, now housing the Kerry County Museum, before veering west into the park. Located directly beneath the tarmac forming the current road surface, the cobbled surface was composed of sub-square and sub-angular sandstones and had an exposed intermittent length of 8–10m. Rubble layers of broken red and yellow sandstone were recorded within the same trench and this was resolved as waste materials from the construction of the building of the hall.

Full-time monitoring within the constraint zone of KE029–094, a ringfort, was also undertaken. The adjacent ringfort, KE029–095, was excavated in 1997 by Rose M. Cleary in advance of campus development for the Institute of Technology, Tralee (Excavations 1997, No. 242, 97E0022). Modern layers of tarmac, rubble and natural subsoil were recorded on both section faces within the constraint zone of KE029–094. No archaeological deposits, stratigraphy or artefacts were recorded within the trench.

KE029–120 is recorded as a ringfort in the townland of Clounalour in the RMP. A petrol service station is now occupying the site of the monument. The south-western corner of the junction between Edward Street and Brewery Road was subject to testing. However, as the ringfort had been destroyed several years ago, full-time monitoring was deemed sufficient at this junction. Modern layers of concrete, limestone trunking, rubble infill and natural subsoil were evident, while modern sacking material was recorded at the base of the trench. No archaeological deposits, stratigraphy or artefacts were recorded.

Nothing of archaeological significance was recorded within the remainder of the trenches opened throughout Tralee town.

3 Lios Na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee, Co. Kerry