County: Kildare Site name: Woodlands East
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002951
Author: Lisa Doyle, Headland Archaeology Ltd, Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park, Little Island, Cork.
Site type: Charcoal-production pits, slag pits and ditches
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 676241m, N 685689m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.916629, -6.866355
This site was excavated as part of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford scheme, Phase 3: Kilcullen to Carlow. Testing identified a curving ditch running approximately north–south and nine or more possible corn-drying kilns. Resolution was carried out between April and July 2007, with an area of 25,745m2 stripped of topsoil. Excavation revealed numerous dispersed features.
The site was mostly characterised by charcoal-production pits, of which there were at least three recognisable types: 26 subrectangular (2m by 1.2m by 0.15m–1.4m by 1m by 0.4m), 23 sub-oval (1.6m by 1.3m by 0.3–1.04m by 1m by 0.4m) and seven subcircular (c. 1m diameter by 0.15m) examples. The form varied within each broad category, ranging from saddle- to kidney-shaped. Charcoal only survived on the base of a few, but scorching of the natural clay was evident around the majority.
The most numerous features present were non-descript pits of various shapes and sizes. Many had been used as dumps for the production pit waste. Two of the larger examples, C34 (1.55 by 1.32 by 0.35) and C22 (1.9 by 1.5 by 0.2) were filled with high concentrations of ash.
In addition, 24 stake-holes (c. 0.1m diameter by 0.15m) and seventeen post-holes (c. 0.36 diameter by 0.28m) were identified. Although some occurred in clusters, none appeared to be structural in nature and are suspected as representing windbreaks or perhaps upright supports for suspension.
