County: Tipperary Site name: Gortnaskehy
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002903
Author: Kate Taylor, TVAS (Ireland) Ltd, Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare.
Site type: Hearth
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 577140m, N 671340m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.792586, -8.338929
This site was excavated in advance of the N7 Nenagh to Limerick road project at Chainage 18755–18930. Excavations were carried out between 29 January and 16 February 2007. The site was located in the Kilmastulla Valley, north of the river itself and overlooked by the Silvermines Mountains to the east and the Arra Mountains to the west.
Three areas were investigated within the site. None produced any significant archaeological remains. The only feature recorded was a small hearth measuring 2.1m by at least 0.35m (it had been truncated during test-trenching in 2006). Two co-joining pieces of a large flint blade were recovered from the topsoil.
One of the excavation areas was targeted on the location of a structure shown on the first-edition OS map of 1843. No evidence of the building was found on the ground and it appears that it had been completely destroyed in antiquity.
