2007:1607 - Carrigatogher (Harding), Tipperary

This site was excavated in advance of the N7 Nenagh to Limerick road project at Chainage 25295 to 25410. Excavations were carried out between 6 July and 23 August 2006. Six separate areas (A–F) were investigated over a 235m-long stretch of the road-take on the east-facing lower slopes of the Arra Mountains, overlooking the Kilmastulla Valley. The site was bounded to the north-east by a field boundary and to the south-west by a stream. Area A included the length of the site running south-west to north-east to accommodate an access road. Areas D and E did not contain archaeological features.
Area A
Area A consisted of two areas of activity: pits and post-holes in the northern area and, to the south, two pits containing burnt-stone material.
The northern area contained eleven pits, eight post-holes, a stake-hole and a modern stone-lined drain. Two pits were cut by the drain and their relationship with each other is therefore unknown. One of these pits was oval in plan with a U-shaped concave profile. The main fill was darkish-brown clayey silt with burnt stone and frequent charcoal fragments and was very similar in composition to fulacht fiadh material. The other pit had an elongated shape and contained a single silty brown fill.
The other nine pits can be described as circular or oval in plan. It is likely that all these features had been truncated by agricultural activities. All the fills were similar brown sandy clay silt deposits, with inclusions of small stones and charcoal flecking. One pit produced three small pieces of burnt bone.
Like the pits, the post-holes were circular or oval in plan and had been truncated. The smallest post-hole measured 0.2m by 0.19m and was 0.17m deep whilst the largest was 0.48m by 0.4m and 0.32m deep. All the fills consisted of a similar brown sandy silt deposit, with inclusions of small stones and charcoal flecking. The stake-hole also had a brown sandy silt fill but had a high concentration of charcoal throughout the deposit.
Two pits define a separate area of activity at the southern edge of the site, adjacent to the stream. The larger of the two pits was 2.17m by 1.5m, had a depth of 0.68m and contained three fills. The pit was carefully cut into the clay natural and could hold water very well. The primary fill of this pit was very compact coarse sandy silt which was sealed by a deposit of compact blue/grey clay with 50% burnt sandstone. The tertiary fill was composed of dark-grey to black silt with 80% burnt sandstone. The adjacent pit was 1.1m in diameter and was tightly filled with broken burnt sandstone. With a depth of only 0.23m, and considering the volume of stone placed in this pit, it could have been used for dumping stone removed from the larger pit.
Area B
Area B contained one pit that was irregular in plan, measuring 1.1m by 0.6m, and had suffered a lot of disturbance. The pit contained two deposits. The primary fill was a reddish-pink sandy clay and contained large charcoal lumps and occasional burnt pieces of stone. The secondary fill was dark-brown silty clay and had some charcoal flecking. It is possible that this feature was a root hole with burnt-stone material washed in.
Area C
Area C contained four pits. The pits were similar in dimension, measuring 0.55m by 0.4m by 0.16m deep to 0.8m by 0.6m by 0.18m deep. Three of the pits contained a similar deposit of dark-grey/brown clayey silt containing a small amount of charcoal. The fourth pit was filled with a more compact black/brown fine sandy silt containing lumps of charcoal.
Area F
Three probable round house structures were excavated in this trench. Structure 1 was defined by a ring gully mainly composed of curvilinear cuts with traces of post-holes to the west. The post-holes and a lot of the internal features where truncated by a large tree bole on the north-west side of the structure. The gully itself was 0.3–0.5m wide and 0.15–0.3m deep. The internal dimensions of Structure 1 were 6.8m south-west to north-east by 6m with the entrance facing south-east. Eleven internal post- and stake-holes did not form a regular pattern, although some of the post-holes were substantial and may represent roof supports.
Structure 2 lay directly south of the main round house and indeed the two may have slightly overlapped. This structure was seen as a circle of post-holes ranging in diameter from 0.35m to 1m. Internally Structure 2 measured 9.6m south-west to north-east by 6.9m. There was no obvious entrance and a few internal features that may be structural, or may, alternatively relate to Structure 1.
Structure 3 was located south-west of Structures 1 and 2 and was only partially within the road-take, continuing into the adjacent field to the south-east. This structure was also seen as a circle of post-holes of similar sizes to those in Structure 2. The internal diameter is estimated at 6m; there was no visible entrance and no internal features.
A number of small pits and post-holes were located to the north-east of the structures.
The three structures represent at least two phases of occupation. Structures 1 and 2 are not contemporary; however, the relationship between them is not known at this stage.
Few artefacts were recovered from the site; the most notable are a flint arrowhead from the surface of Area F and a polished stone item from one of the pits. It is recommended that the remainder of the site outside the CPO be entered into the RMP for County Tipperary.

Editor’s note: Although excavated during 2006, the report on this site arrived too late for inclusion in the bulletin of that year.