2008:588 - Ballygowlogue, Kerry

An application to develop a greenfield site adjacent to an existing housing estate on the eastern outskirts of Listowel led to a request for a pre-development test excavation to be carried out. The site was scheduled for development as a small-scale residential housing scheme and although it was not within the vicinity of any monuments, it was requested that testing be undertaken due to the scale of the development. Five test-trenches were excavated by a mechanical excavator using a 1.5m-wide grading bucket. The grass vegetation at the time of the excavation was relatively low and there were no surface anomalies to indicate denuded archaeological features in any of the tested areas. Two trenches were laid out east–west across the footprint of two rows of proposed semi-detached houses. A third trench was placed north-west/south-east across a shorter row of housing and the remaining two trenches were centrally positioned to incorporate the circuit of the internal access road. The soil profile in the trenches was mostly uniform and consisted of sod, a layer of loose topsoil and underlying boulder clay varying in colour from grey to orange in different locations across the site. All test-trenches were excavated to a level into the natural subsoil and no features or finds of archaeological significance were noted in any of the investigated areas.