2007:1809 - Carriganore, Waterford

Waterford Institute of Technology proposed to develop a new campus on a 61.74ha site at Carriganore, Woodstown. This site was originally part of the Killoteran House Demesne and later (post-1842) became part of lands of Carriganore House. A small part of the site had been subject to testing in 2005 (04E0036). Planning permission was granted for that component of the development.
In 2006 planning permission for the remainder of the site was granted subject to conditions including inter alia one requiring an archaeological appraisal of the site. The area of low-lying ground where it was intended to create sports facilities appears to have been poorly drained swampy ground until relatively recent times. It had been laid out as fields by the 1840s, but the drainage of this area may date to the 18th or early 19th century.
The higher ground of Carriganore could have been attractive for settlement at every period in the past and proximity of significant finds from the Bronze Age to the Viking period discovered on the route of the nearby N25 meant that every precaution was taken.
In June and early July 2007, 39 test-trenches were excavated. No feature of archaeological significance was recorded in the course of the test-trenching. Very few artefacts were recovered from the low-lying fields. A few sherds of 19th/20th-century pottery occurred here and there in one trench and half a horseshoe of recent origin was recovered in another. On the higher ground artefacts, although sparse, were more plentiful in the topsoil; e.g. an iron bolt, a handle from a chinaware cup and a sherd of red earthenware were recovered. A few fragments of chert and flint (possibly struck but not artefacts) were found. The only significant artefact of any antiquity was a hone (whetstone) found in the northern end of one trench. The whetstone has two smooth faces and traces of a pin groove on one face. All other artefacts recovered were of 18th-century to modern date including ceramics and a roof tile.