2008:776 - Gorteens, Limerick

This site was excavated on behalf of Limerick County Council as part of the water mains upgrade running from Adare to Patrickswell, Co. Limerick. The pipeline was split into two sections which joined at the Attyflin interchange. Section one began at NGR 151988 149370 and ran for 3490m westwards along the edge of the N21; section two began at NGR 1551142 148354 and travelled south for a distance of 1600m following the route of the N20.
Previous investigations at Gorteen, carried out in advance of the N20 Limerick bypass (97E0230 ext.), had uncovered the northernmost part of a moated enclosure (LI021–017). The current excavation encompassed a sizeable area within the central part of this enclosure.
Excavation revealed two large north-north-east/south-south-west-orientated enclosure ditches ranging between 3.56m to 4.95m in width and 1.31m to 2m in depth, with a length of c. 9.5m within the excavated area. The fills of both ditches appeared to represent deliberate episodes of backfilling. Four linear features were also identified between these enclosure ditches. These measured between 1.75m and 10.9m in length, 0.44m and 1.73m in width and 0.16m to 0.73m in depth and contained charcoal, animal bone and shell fragments within their fills.
The remains of two field boundary ditches were located to the west of the enclosure ditch. These were c. 9m in length and ranged between 1m and 1.8m in width and 0.27m and 0.35m in depth.
A large rectangular-shaped depression with associated stake-holes represented the remains of a structure located between the two enclosure ditches. This depression measured 7.4m in length, 2.9m in width and 0.62m in depth. The stake-holes formed three interconnecting lines at the western end of the depression. A second rectangular-shaped depression measuring 4.85m long by 2.25m wide, with a depth range of 0.1–0.18m, was also identified as a structure. Between these two features was a shallow elongated oval depression identified as a possible pathway. This measured 7.65m in length by 1.5m in width and had a maximum depth of 0.38m. A second pathway was located close to the inside edge of the enclosure ditch. It measured c. 11.1m in length, 4m in width and was 0.57m deep.
Part of a large pit was identified to the north of Structure 1, the other part being beyond the area of excavation. It measured 5.89m in length, 3.2m in width (within the excavated area) and 1.11m deep and contained a total of 14 fills with charcoal and shell fragments throughout. A second pit measuring 1.59m long, 1m wide and 0.39m deep contained two fills with small stones.
A total of four post-holes were excavated throughout the site. These ranged from 0.38m to 1.3m in length, 0.3m to 0.69m in width and 0.29m to 0.48m deep. They contained silt and clay fills with charcoal and stone.
Two kilns were also identified. The first was located to the immediate west of the enclosure ditch. It measured 1.98m by 0.96m and had a maximum depth of 1.05m. The kiln had an approximate north–south axis with the bowl being in the southern part of the feature and the flue in the north. The natural at the base of the cut had suffered from intense burning. Three fills containing charcoal and burnt bone were identified throughout the kiln.
The second kiln was located to the west of the field boundary ditches. The overall length of the feature measured 7.1m, with a maximum width of 2.6m and a minimum width of 0.8m. The overall depth of the kiln was 0.7m. It was keyhole-shaped, with a north-east/south-west orientation, and consisted of three parts, a bowl in the north-east, a hearth in the south-west and a narrow flue linking the two components. The sides of the kiln were lined with stone in areas. Its four fills contained shell fragments, charcoal, gravel and stone. A metalled surface of small stones and pebbles measuring c. 7m by 3m, with a thickness of 0.01–0.05m, was located to the north of the kilns.