2007:885 - AR094, Bennetsbridge, Kilkenny

This site was located within the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford road scheme along Contract 2, Phase 4B, Knocktopher to Powerstown, on a relatively flat field adjacent to the River Nore. The earliest phase on the site was represented by a double ring-ditch (inner ring-ditch 12.5m in diameter, outer ring-ditch 20.5m in diameter). The ring-ditches were cut by a medieval, square enclosure, so it is currently thought that the ring-ditches are prehistoric in date, probably Neolithic or Bronze Age. Two Mesolithic bann flakes recovered from the outer ring-ditch are more likely to be incidental finds and not indicative of any earlier origin. The square enclosure (43m by 43m) contained medieval pottery in its ditch fills. A large pit containing medieval pottery, iron nails, a copper fragment and charred macrobotanical material, two L-shaped linear features and a line of post-holes which could represent a structure also contained medieval pottery and whetstones and are therefore likely to be associated with the enclosure. A stone-lined, keyhole-shaped cereal-drying kiln cut into the enclosure ditch is also likely to be related. A human burial (east–west) was also found just outside the south-south-west corner of the enclosure; it had been disturbed and the disarticulated remains were recovered c. 2m from the main burial.