County: Tipperary Site name: Carrigatogher (Harding)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002474
Author: Liam Hackett, Headland Archaeology Ltd, Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park. Little Island, Cork.
Site type: Cremation cemetery, fulacht fiadh, metalled surface, occupation sites
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 581244m, N 676699m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.840907, -8.278387
Archaeological investigation in advance of the N7 Nenagh to Limerick high-quality dual carriageway road project took place in Carrigatogher (Harding) between 19 August and 20 October 2006. The archaeological features on this large site were spread over the entire area, on a steep eastward-facing slope. These features were:
• A small unenclosed flat cremation cemetery, consisting of four charcoal-rich pits containing moderate amounts of burnt human bone and two pits containing charcoal only.
• A small isolated stone-lined trough with two small burnt spreads and a possible windbreak-type slot-trench feature.
• Two post-hole-built structures with in situ hearths, metalled surface and associated post- and stake-holes. Prehistoric pottery and a knapping stone were recovered from this area.
• A large fulacht fiadh, measuring 18m (north–south) by 22m, consisting of heat-shattered sand and limestone with varying charcoal deposits in a silty clay on the side of a southward-facing slope. A large oval-shaped trough with an associated windbreak structure and an in situ hearth, surrounded by a metalled area were exposed underneath the burnt spread.
• A large metalled surface, measuring c. 20m (north–south) by 20m, with inbuilt drainage features and three oval-shaped pits containing burnt material was excavated at the base of the slope in the central portion of the site. A stone spindle-whorl was recovered from this area.
• A roughly rectangular occupation platform with an in situ hearth and several sherds of decorated prehistoric pottery on the summit of a small valley, overlooking the adjacent fulacht fiadh. No subsoil-cut features were found in this area.
• Two small oval pits of indeterminate date and function. No finds were recovered from this area.
Editor’s note: Although excavated during 2006, the report on this site arrived too late for inclusion in the bulletin of that year.
