County: Kildare Site name: Woodlands East
Sites and Monuments Record No.: 276380 185337 Licence number: E002954
Author: Tom Janes, Headland Archaeology Ltd, Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park, Little Island, Cork.
Site type: Probable charcoal-production pits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 676485m, N 685078m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.911096, -6.862873
This site was excavated as part of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford scheme, Phase 3: Kilcullen to Carlow. The site comprised a concentration of pits along a c. 144m length of Woodlands East townland.
Pre-development test-trenching undertaken by CRDS Ltd identified a number of features interpreted as being corn-drying kilns and associated pits.
Excavation revealed fifteen probable charcoal-production pits. Associated features were six hearths, sixteen pits, and ditches. All of the ditches were interpreted as being post-medieval, and some of them were aligned with existing field boundaries visible in neighbouring fields. The pits and hearths were probably contemporary with each other although only one small sherd of possible pottery was recovered from a hearth.
Also revealed was a skeleton of an adult. The adult was within a sub-oval cut. The cut was possibly in a charcoal-production pit, indicating that the deposition belonged to a period after the use of the pit.
