2010:379 - Farranastack, Kerry

Pre-development testing was undertaken as part of an archaeological impact assessment with regard to a single-house development in Farranastack, Lisselton.
The development site was partly located within the zone of archaeological potential for a rath site, KE005–043. Depending on grass growth, the rath is visible aboveground as a circular bank in low relief. It was well illustrated on the first and later editions of the 6-inch OS sheets as a large circular enclosure with a circle of trees around the outer perimeter. The remains were not visible on 1995, 2000 or 2005 aerial photographs; however, the North Kerry Archaeological Survey suggested that the Geological Survey of Ireland aerial photographs from 1974 show the enclosure clearly (Toal 1995).
Together with rath KE005–043 there are two ringforts, c. 200–400m west, in the townland of Killomeerhoe, KE005–040 and –042; a children’s burial-ground, KE005–041, lies between the two ringforts above and a fulacht fiadh, KE005–095, is 200m to the north-east.
During work for the Listowel regional water supply scheme two previously unrecorded fulachta fiadh were noted 180m north and c. 200m north-east of the development site; only scant remains of the latter survive. Three areas were also excavated along the pipeline corridor in the townland of Farranastack. Areas 1 and 2, 80–120m north and north-east, excavated by Marion Dowd, for Eachtra, consisted of Bronze Age pits and medieval metalworking (Excavations 2003, No. 806, 03E0171). Area 3, 260m north-east, excavated by the writer, also for Eachtra, consisted of two curvilinear ditches and fifteen grave-cuts (Excavations 2003, No. 807, 03E0226).
Five test-trenches were excavated across the development site by mechanical excavator with a grading bucket. Three trenches were located along the driveway and through the dwelling platform, while one of these was extended to the rear site boundary through the percolation area. The final two trenches were excavated at the rear of the development site also through the percolation area.
Archaeological features were recorded in Trench 4, located on the southern side of the percolation area to the rear site boundary. The trench was 2m wide, aligned east–west, 26m long and from 0.5–0.8m deep. The ditch and bank of rath KE005–043 were located 6.5m east of the south-east corner of the percolation area. The ditch was aligned north-east/south-west, was 2.4m wide and filled with grey/brown silty clay, mottled from moisture in the fill of the ditch. The remains of the bank were also 2.4m wide. The upper surface was composed of mid-brown stony gravel with a line of loose medium-sized stones on the interior; the fill around these stones was a dark-brown silt. This stone feature is likely to be a stone revetment on the interior of the enclosure bank.
Directly under the sod layer over both bank and ditch was a sandy light-brown gravelly silt. This was 0.1m deep over the ditch and deepened to 0.3m over the bank; it also comprised the upper layer of the bank and stone revetment.
Reference
Toal, C. 1995 North Kerry archaeological survey. Kerry.