County: Limerick Site name: RATHKEALE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LI029–031 Licence number: 09E0306
Author: Mary Henry, Mary Henry Archaeological Services Ltd, 17 Staunton Row, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 536408m, N 641795m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.523807, -8.937097
A vacant plot was tested in advance of the construction of two semi-detached houses. The site is within the historic town of Rathkeale. Six test-trenches were opened. No archaeological features or deposits were identified in any of the trenches.
On the lower level, in the southern aspect, it was apparent that this area had previously been topsoil-stripped to the natural formation, then covered with hardcore. In the northern part of the site, soil cover overlying the natural was relatively thin and may also have been previously stripped. This may have been to form a two-tier terraced plot. At some point in the recent past, a retaining wall was constructed across the width of the site and a vast quantity of dumping deposited on its northern side to the same height as the north-western ground surface. It is considered that any archaeological features or deposits had been destroyed by the above works.
