County: Wexford Site name: Ballycarrigeen Lower 6
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E004164
Author: Margaret McNamara, for TVAS (Ireland) Ltd, Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare.
Site type: Burnt-stone spread, wood-lined trough, stake-holes, fire-spot and post-medieval ditches
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 705881m, N 648091m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.573809, -6.437911
Ballycarrigeen Lower 6 was located on the proposed M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy scheme. The site was situated in pasture.
The earliest activity on-site was a rectangular trough, heavily truncated by a ditch. This feature had vertical sides and a flat base and measured 1.34m by 1.15m by 0.65m. A heavily truncated and damaged wooden lining was recorded at the base of the trough. There were two fills, both charcoal-rich with burnt-stone inclusions, suggestive of burnt-stone-generating activity. A group of ten stake-holes was located south of the trough, possible supports for an associated structure. A possible fire-spot was recorded west of the trough.
The trough, stake-holes and fire-spot were subsequently overlain with a burnt-stone spread, also heavily truncated by the ditch. The spread was irregular, measured approximately 10m by 7m, was 0.13m thick and consisted of three deposits, comprising charcoal-rich clays with heat-affected stone. A number of smaller, isolated, burnt-stone deposits were located south of the main spread, possible remnants of the original extent of the spread.
Three ditches of probable post-medieval date cut through the site. One ditch truncated the spread and underlying trough, had a modern pipe at its base and was aligned north-west to south-east. Another of the ditches corresponds roughly with a field boundary depicted on 19th- and early 20th-century OS maps.
