County: Offaly Site name: Ardan II
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A033; E2846
Author: Linda Hegarty, Headland Archaeology, Unit 25, Liosbaun Industrial Estate, Tuam Road, Galway.
Site type: Burnt spread
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 633584m, N 727694m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.298477, -7.496188
Ardan II is located approximately 0.5km north of Tullamore in gently undulating pasture land on a gentle south-facing slope. The site, excavated in January 2007, was covered by mid-brown silty sand topsoil with an average depth of 0.3m. This contained moderate inclusions of small and medium mixed stones. The glacial till in this area consisted of a yellowish-grey coarse gravelly sand which included small stones, medium boulders and sub-rounded, cobble-sized stones.
A spread of charcoal-rich sandy silt and heat-shattered stone was identified in offsets T7 to T10 on the western edge of the CPO corridor. This was a subcircular spread of moderately compact charcoal-rich sandy silt with frequent inclusions of small and medium heat-shattered and fire-reddened stone. It was 0.25m deep, 27m north–south by 7.5m. Two extra trenches were excavated in order to determine the limits of the feature. No artefacts were recovered from the spread.
