County: Tipperary Site name: Ballyard to Ballintotty, including the Birdhill interchange
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E003267
Author: Ross MacLeod, Headland Archaeology Ltd, Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park, Little Island, Cork.
Site type: Cremation pits, pits, post- and stake-holes, burnt mounds, kiln, patches of burnt material
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 571710m, N 666365m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.747616, -8.419004
Testing in advance of the N7 Nenagh to Limerick high-quality dual carriageway road project was carried out between 29 January and 6 March 2007. The work comprised testing along the line of the proposed new road in areas that were previously inaccessible for various ecological and logistical reasons. This document covers testing, or ‘monitoring of topsoil-stripping’, from Ballyard (Chainage 12300) north-eastwards (towards Nenagh), including the Birdhill interchange, to the contract’s end in Ballintotty (Chainage 36500) along the line of the proposed new road. The testing comprised test-trenching 10% of the total proposed land-take in non-specific areas and 25% in areas of higher potential (these areas were determined by the project archaeologist). In all, 28 ‘areas’ were tested with 15,208m of trenches monitored. A further 3816m2 was stripped of its topsoil to access the limits of possible archaeology uncovered in trenches. This resulted in five new sites requiring resolution as part of the overall project.
Site 1: Ballycuddy More, Area 20, Field 1
This site produced an irregular charcoal-rich spread, an oval pit and a possible post-hole.
Site 2: Ballycuddy More, Area 20, Field 2
This site produced numerous archaeological features including possible cremation pits, areas of burning, pits, post-holes, a ring-ditch and anomalous spreads of charcoal-rich silty clay. A number of the pits contained probable Bronze Age pottery.
Site 3: Ballyhisky/Cloghleigh, Area 21, Trench 13
This site revealed a probable keyhole-shaped kiln.
Site 4: Carraigatogher, Area 26, Field 2
This site revealed a circular feature 7.5m in diameter, numerous pits with in situ burning, stake-holes, post-holes, charcoal-rich spreads and a burnt mound.
Site 5: Carraigatogher, Area 26, Field 3
Numerous patches of irregularly shaped burnt-mound material were revealed at this site.
