2007:797 - CORBALLY/BROWNSTOWN: Brownstown Quarry, Kildare

The site is located in the townlands of Corbally and Brownstown, c. 2km to the north-east of Kilcullen, Co. Kildare. The lands are owned by Kilsaran Concrete and have been subject to sand and gravel extraction over a number of years. A geophysical survey of two fields was conducted by Target Archaeological Geophysics under licence number 06R0198 in December 2006 (Nicholls 2007). A number of potential archaeological features were identified by the survey, including a possible enclosure in the southern field. A programme of test-trenching was devised to assess the results of the geophysical survey and was carried out between 10 and 13 April 2007.

Three test-trenches (Trenches 1–3) were mechanically excavated in the northern field and six (Trenches 4–9) in the southern field. The majority of the geophysical anomalies identified during the geophysical survey appeared, following testing, to be the result of variations in subsurface geology. There were no archaeological features or deposits exposed during the testing in the northern field.

A number of archaeological features were exposed in one of the trenches in the southern field. These features consisted of a number of ditches, pits and linear features, which were consistent with the presence of an enclosure as identified by the geophysical survey. The widest of the ditch features was a maximum of 4.7m wide.

It was recommended that the area of the enclosure be stripped under supervision and that full excavation of archaeological features take place prior to any quarrying work.

Reference:
Nicholls, J. 2007 Geophysical survey at Brownstown Quarry, County Kildare. Unpublished geophysical survey report. TARGET Archaeological Geophysics.

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