County: Tipperary Site name: Kilpatrick
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0065
Author: Joanne Hughes, Boscabell, Cashel, Co. Tipperary.
Site type: Charcoal-production pit, Bronze Age house, pits, post-holes and linear features
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 592421m, N 644079m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.547994, -8.111744
Monitoring at a sand and gravel quarry at Kilpatrick, Donohill, in March and April 2008 identified two pits and a roughly north–south orientated ditch (recorded on the first-edition OS map). In addition, the remains of a circular Bronze Age house (almost 9m in diameter), including a curvilinear slot-trench, a roughly circular arrangement of post-holes and internal features including a probable hearth and four-post entrance, were identified. The features extended beyond the limits of excavation to the north. A number of probable Bronze Age pottery sherds were recovered from the surface of two of the internal features. Two roughly north–south-orientated linear features were noted at the east and west sides of the structure.
As the area in which the structure was identified was not under immediate threat from quarrying it was covered with geotextile, and a buffer zone was cordoned off between it and the active quarry pit. An upgrade to the monitoring licence was granted in April 2008.
The pits were excavated in April 2008 as they lay in the active quarry area. One of the pits transpired to be a charcoal preparation pit, the second was interpreted as a tree bole. No dating evidence was recovered from the ditch.
In September 2008 an additional c. 30m2 area adjacent to the Bronze Age structure was topsoil-stripped, revealing c. 50 additional features of archaeological significance. These features extend beyond the limits of the topsoil-stripped area to the north, east and south. The majority of the features were charcoal-rich, and comprised mainly pits and post-holes, with a number of linear and curvilinear features also identified. Although no obvious pattern or structures could be identified in the newly stripped area, it is likely that a number of phased and intercutting structures are represented.
The Bronze Age structure was excavated in October 2008 over a period of three weeks. Numerous sherds of prehistoric pottery as well as lithics were recovered. The remaining exposed features were cordoned off from the active quarry area and will be excavated on a phased basis during 2009.
