County: Tipperary Site name: Rathnaveoge Upper 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E003900
Author: Sinéad Marshall, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd, Brehon House, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: Kiln, hearth
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 609330m, N 684286m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.909344, -7.861287
This site was identified during testing along the route of the proposed N7 Castletown to Nenagh road improvement scheme. Excavation was carried out in January 2008.
Rathnaveoge townland sits in the foothills at the north-east end of the Devil’s Bit Mountains, overlooking the Offaly border, within the Barony of Ikerrin. The site lay near the base of a steep slope overlooking a stream.
There were four features on Rathnaveoge Upper 1, including a possible simple kiln, a pit, a hearth and a post-hole.
The ‘kiln’ had a very basic structure. It was orientated south-west/north-east and measured a maximum of 2.5m by 1.03m by 0.31m deep. The deepest section was at the south-west end leading up into a central ‘flue’ and on into a wide, shallow bowl to the north-east. No stone lining or other internal structures were evident. The cut did not show intense burning of the natural subsoil. This may be because either a low heat only was needed for the kiln to work or it was never fully fired up and was abandoned before it could reach the necessary temperature. All three fills contained charcoal and ash and may represent a disturbed ‘use’ phase of the feature. However, the possibility that the fills derived from dumping or a disuse phase remains.
Beside the possible kiln was a rectangular pit which measured 0.8m by 0.74m by 0.08m deep. Its only fill consisted of grey/brown clayey sand with small lumps of charcoal. It is interpreted as a storage pit for the charcoal needed to feed the kiln.
An oval feature lay 2.75m north-east of the kiln’s bowl area. It had one fill of dark-brown silty clay, which contained small fragments of burnt bone, a residue of the use phase. The cut was extremely shallow (20mm) and its base had been subjected to intense heat.
An isolated post-hole was located 3.4m north-east of the kiln. The cut was almost rectangular in plan and measured 0.3m by 0.21m by 0.2m deep. Its one fill was a dark-brown silty clay with occasional small pebbles and moderate charcoal inclusions. The post itself may have served as a marker for the site or it could be the only remains of a light structure.
