County: Kildare Site name: CORBALLY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E0258
Author: Frank Coyne, Aegis Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Barrow - ring-barrow, Kiln - corn-drying, Structure and Pit
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 684199m, N 713030m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.161098, -6.740912
An excavation took place at Brownstown, Corbally, Co. Kildare, from April to August 2007 in advance of the extension of an existing quarry. The area excavated was situated in Field 2 of the quarry, which lies c. 2.5km to the north-east of Kilcullen.
The surrounding land is gently undulating and slopes to lower ground to the north-west. The Brownstone pit is currently being quarried to the south and south-east of the area of archaeological excavation. The Liffey Valley runs to the north of the site, with the river being c. 5km from the site, after which it curves to the west where it is only 2km from the site at its closest. Silliot Hill is c. 500m to the south-east and Dún Ailinne c. 4km to the south-west of the site.
The site has been ploughed on numerous occasions, but immediately prior to testing and excavation it was under grass.
The excavation revealed some 230 features, most of which were ditches. Several large ditch features traversed the site, while other ditches related to agriculture, possible of medieval date, as well as numerous drains and furrows. The largest ditch ran along the southern edge of the site from east to west; the part excavated (the ditch ran beyond the limit of excavation) was over 120m long and had a maximum depth of 2m and a maximum width of 4m.
Three ring-barrows were also excavated, enclosing a total of nine inhumations (plus disarticulated human bone fragments from two other individuals). A total of eight other inhumations was found on three different areas of the site, two single burials and one cluster of a group of six burials. Four cremation pits were excavated. The different types of inhumations suggest that this area had been used over a long period.
A complex of stake- and post-holes, associated with a large stone-built corn-drying kiln, may represent an associated barn or storage structure. Three other smaller kilns were also excavated, but all of them were badly damaged by modern ploughing activity or truncated by ditches. Also excavated were a series of pits, possibly associated with charcoal or iron production.
32 Nicholas Street, King’s Island, Limerick
