County: Kilkenny Site name: UNTESTED AREA 1, MILLTOWN/BALLINCURRAGH/BALLYNAMORAHAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A032; E4052
Author: Colum Hardy, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd, Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: Burnt mound and pit
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 658879m, N 617703m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.307819, -7.136575
The monitoring of topsoil-stripping took place during September 2009, in advance of the construction of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford road improvement scheme. Prior assessment was carried out by Valerie
J. Keeley Ltd in 2005 and Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd carried out centreline test-trenching in 2006. A total of 53 areas of archaeological potential were highlighted during this process, requiring further investigation. A number of areas that were not investigated during testing (Untested Areas 1–9) were monitored for archaeological remains during the construction phase of the project. Monitoring of drainage works associated with the ^Castlestream’ needed to be rerouted and enlarged in order to take larger volumes of water, as the run-off from the new road and some drains was now feeding into the stream.
Area 1: Ballynamorahan
The extents of the works carried out in Area 1 were specifically to remove seasonal vegetation from the streambed to ^free up’ the flow of water through this area for better drainage. No topsoil-stripping took part at any stage in Area 1. The machine removed all vegetation from the streambed in Area 1, with any additional silt extracted being checked on the banks for archaeological material. No archaeological features or finds were discovered during the monitoring. The section of stream between Areas 1 and 2 remained undisturbed.
Area 2: Milltown Upper
Some grey, charcoal-flecked soil with burnt sandstone fragments was recorded c. 4m in from the bank of the stream. The burnt spread was exposed within an area that measured a maximum of 40m north–south by 12m. It was decided to reroute the new streambed in order to avoid the archaeology, as it covered such a large area relative to the plot. A new line for the stream was then stripped of topsoil. An oval pit was identified 4m west of the stream on this second line. It was truncated by an old field boundary ditch on its south side. Again it was decided to avoid this pit and a third line for the stream was chosen. No archaeological material was identified along this line during topsoil removal. The archaeological material was photographed, briefly recorded and protected with terram before being re-covered with topsoil.
