County: Kilkenny Site name: WHITEHALL/PAULSTOWN (2)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A032/146; E3632
Author: Ruth Elliott, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.
Site type: Structure, Kiln and Pit
Period/Dating: Chalcolithic (2500 BC-2201 BC)
ITM: E 665600m, N 658693m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.675320, -7.029540
This site was located within the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford road scheme along Contract 2, Phase 4B, Knocktopher to Powerstown, located at the crest of a small hill with panoramic views of the surrounding landscape, including the Blackstairs Mountains to the east and Brandon Hill to the south. A standing stone outside the CPO line was also visible to the east. The site represented an Early Bronze Age (Beaker) site containing large quantities of Beaker pottery, flint and chert artefacts. A small quantity of Middle Neolithic pottery was also recovered. Three circular post-built structures were discovered on the site.
Structure A was almost perfectly circular (5m internal diameter and 5.7m external diameter). It had no apparent entrance and was composed of twenty substantial post-holes (averaging 0.3m in diameter and c. 0.4–0.5m in depth). In all cases, where possible to determine, the post-holes contained upright vertical posts. These were quite regularly spaced along the circumference of the structure at roughly 0.5m intervals. Four external posts also appeared to provide additional support. Some of the post-holes retained post-pipe and packing fills, indicating they had decayed, or in some cases burned, in situ. In other instances the posts had clearly been removed and the post-holes backfilled. There were thirteen internal features, comprising both pits and post-holes. Some of the post-holes may have supported a roof structure; no definite pattern could be attributed to them. Finds of Beaker pottery, worked flint and chert were found associated with this structure.
Structure B (5.3–5.7m internal diameter and 6–6.3m external diameter) lay 1m north-west of Structure A and had an apparent entrance at the east. Thirteen post-holes (0.25–0.3m average diameter and 0.18m depth) formed the circumference. In all cases the posts had been removed prior to the cuts being filled. Within the structure four large post-holes (0.5m in diameter and 0.25–0.35m deep) were set in a rectangular formation (2.8m by 3.7m) and may have supported a roof. The posts had been removed from these and the remaining post-holes contained charcoal-rich basal fills. Three additional support features were found within the structure. Pits at the south-east underlay the structure indicating an earlier phase of activity.
Structure C (4.7–5m internal diameter and 5.2–5.3m external diameter) lay 10m north-east of Structure A and had an entrance at the north. The circumference was composed of fourteen post-holes (averaging 0.25m diameter and 0.14m depth) and in all cases the posts had been removed prior to the cuts being filled. Three post-holes, a small pit and a kiln were located within the structure.
120B Greenpark Road, Bray, Wicklow
