County: Kilkenny Site name: Castletown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 06E0298
Author: Dáire Leahy, ADS Ltd, Unit D, Kells Business Park, Cavan Road, Kells, Co. Meath.
Site type: Prehistoric and post-medieval activity
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 626092m, N 672977m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.807155, -7.613000
The site is located in north Kilkenny and consisted of 33 separate areas of archaeological features spread over an area of c. 4km2. Preliminary examination of the pottery has indicated the presence of remains dating from the early Neolithic through to the late Bronze Age (Anna Brindley, pers. comm.).
While most of the areas contained isolated and probably unrelated pits from which no datable material was recovered, eight of these were of greater interest. At Area 5 prehistoric pottery was recovered from two pits. In one case this was of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age date. In the other, associated with burnt-mound material, a convex scraper and animal bone, the pottery was of Middle/Late Bronze Age date.
In Area 6 a series of four consecutive ditches appear to have been dug, backfilled and re-dug in relatively rapid succession. It appears that these may have been part of a curvilinear enclosure that extended beyond the limit of excavation. Only 8m of these ditches were exposed and they measured up to 2m wide. From their fills, and those of adjacent pits, Neolithic pottery of the period 3650–3600bc and a possible axe-grinding stone were recovered.
A crouched inhumation in a shallow pit and without any grave goods or surrounding ditch was excavated in Area 11 and further burials, in this case six cremations in simple pits, were excavated at Area 23. No artifacts were recovered from these features.
Two similar areas of features were excavated in Area 14 and 16. Both contained penannular settings of pits filled by burnt-mound material. Those in Area 14 may have been the remains of a small structure, maximum 4m in diameter, and one of the pits contained waste from a chert- and flint-knapping area in addition to pottery of middle to late Bronze Age date. No pottery was recovered from Area 16 but two quern-type stones, two rubbing/grinding/hammerstones and a perforated cuboid, ceramic bead were retrieved.
Also uncovered were two unassociated bowl furnaces filled with slag, in Areas 4 and 28, and a further two isolated features produced sherds of Beaker pottery, one of which was decorated.
The post-medieval activity on the site was represented by a rectilinear system of ditches and quarry pits.
