County: Kildare Site name: Ballyvass
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002938
Author: Tara Doyle, Headland Archaeology Ltd, Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park, Little Island, Cork.
Site type: Truncated cereal-drying kiln
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 676831m, N 688028m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.937558, -6.857033
This site was excavated as part of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford scheme, Phase 3: Kilcullen to Carlow. An area measuring 100m2 was stripped of topsoil.
The earliest archaeological activity on site was a post-hole/pit located under the fire pit of the kiln. It measured 0.5m long by 0.42m wide and 0.37m deep and contained mid-brown silt clay with charcoal inclusions. A 2.52m-long by 1m-wide truncated keyhole cereal-drying kiln lay directly over the post-hole/pit. The kiln was located in the centre of the site and was orientated north–south. The fire pit had a maximum width of 1m and a depth of 0.23m. This rose up to 0.08m deep to the south-east, where the bowl was situated. The bowl was 0.4m wide. The kiln was filled with five shallow deposits, with one layer of burning, indicating a single firing of the kiln. The kiln was shallow and may have been truncated by plough action.
Two stake-holes were identified south-west of the bowl and may represent a windbreak. A further two pits lay directly west and south-west of the kiln; both were shallow and contained a single fill of orange/brown silt clay with occasional charcoal inclusions. The relationship between the post-hole/pit and the kiln remains unclear. No finds were recovered from the site.
