County: Kilkenny Site name: AR077, Ennisnag
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A032/086; E3617
Author: Richard Jennings, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, 120B Greenpark Road, Bray, Wicklow.
Site type: Prehistoric funerary, early medieval metalworking
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 651624m, N 646270m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.565294, -7.238544
This site was located within the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford road scheme along Contract 2, Phase 4, Knocktopher to Powerstown. Two occupation phases were recorded at a site on gently undulating terrain to the west of a 13th-century castle.
The first appears to date to the Middle Bronze Age. The principal prehistoric features included a ring-ditch (2.2m wide by 0.86m deep) with a diameter of 8m, a cremation pit (0.25m by 0.21m by 0.07m), and two oval-shaped pits, one of which (1.86m by 0.9m by 0.22m) contained eighteen pieces of flint and the other of which (1.4m by 1m by 0.48m) contained thirteen Bronze Age food vessel sherds, although a piece of iron slag was found in the layer below. The ring-ditch contained a primary layer of silting, a deposit of medium to large stones, a secondary silt deposit, and on the surface a charcoal-rich layer containing a small concentration of cremated bone. No evidence was found to show that a bank or mound formed part of this monument. However, the presence of the charcoal and cremated bone in the upper layer suggests that a bank or mound may have once existed here but had been destroyed and subsequently partially dumped into the ditch.
The second phase of occupation at the site took place in the early medieval period. At this time the site had ceased to function as a funerary space and evidence from a small group of pits and a linear field boundary ditch suggested that the site was used for metalworking activities. The field boundary appeared to be truncated by the 17th-century walls of Danesfort Demesne; it seemed to be part of a field system connected with a nearby ringfort in the south-east and headed in the general direction of a second ringfort in the north-west. It is not unusual for metalworking to take place in areas away from ringforts and at territorial boundaries. Metalworking took place on both sides of the ditch. The discovery of iron slag and pieces of burnt clay in three small pits beside the eastern side of the ditch and also in the base of the ditch opposite these pits suggests that the ditch functioned as a source of water for metalworking activities. A compacted surface was also detected around these pits. Two bowl furnaces and a hearth were found on the western side of the ditch.
