County: Tipperary Site name: Annaholty/Cooleen/Touknockane/Ballyard/Coolderry/Lackenavea (Dunalley)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E003512
Author: Kate Taylor, TVAS (Ireland) Ltd, Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare.
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 565139m, N 657788m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.670145, -8.515426
This test-trenching was undertaken in advance of the N7 Nenagh to Limerick road project, between 29 January and 20 March 2007. Test-trenching (Phase III), additional to that carried out in 2006 (Phase I), was conducted in areas that had previously been inaccessible. For the purpose of this testing the route was divided into two halves; this report describes the southern part (Chainage 0–12300) whilst the northern part is discussed below (E3267, No. 1574). The N7 traverses a gently undulating landscape of lowland pasture broken only by a large area of peat basin straddling the border between counties Limerick and Tipperary. The region is overlooked by the Silvermines Mountains to the east and the Arra Mountains to the north and west.
Fifteen separate locations were examined in this phase of testing (see No. 1109 above for areas in Co. Limerick). Mechanically excavated test-trenches examined 10% or 25% of the areas, depending on the archaeological potential. When archaeological deposits were discovered these were fully exposed in preparation for hand excavation that was carried out almost immediately.
Archaeological sites were identified in four locations. These sites were subsequently excavated under the following record numbers: E3326 (see No. 1567 below), E3370 (see No. 1648 below), E3420 (see No. 1149 above) and E3574 (see No. 1578 below) and are described in detail in the corresponding entries.
