County: Wexford Site name: Camlin 5
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E004100
Author: Liam Hackett, Headland Archaeology (Ireland) Ltd, Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park, Little Island, Cork.
Site type: Possible metalworking furnace, pits, curvilinear and linear features
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 671378m, N 624068m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.363535, -6.951960
Excavations at Camlin 5 were undertaken on behalf of Wexford County Council as part of the Stage (iii) archaeological services contract prior to the commencement of construction of the N25 New Ross bypass road scheme.
Excavation at Camlin 5 revealed a possible furnace consisting of a series of intercutting furnace bowls and tapping pits. These ranged from 0.39m to 0.6m in length, 0.3m to 0.47m in width and 0.15m to 0.2m in depth, with four separate stages of use identified.
Four pits were also identified throughout the site. Two of these were of uncertain archaeological significance, measuring 1.6–2.3m in length, 0.85–1.2m in width and 0.37–0.5m in depth; they contained occasional charcoal flecks within their fills. The third, which measured 2.9m in length (north-west/south-east), 1.4m in width and 0.9m in depth, contained seventeen sherds of medieval pottery and may have represented a rubbish pit associated with domestic activity. The final pit, which truncated the possible furnace mentioned above, measured 0.25m long, 0.2m wide and 0.18m deep and may be related to metalworking activity.
A small network of curvilinear and linear features was located in the southern part of Camlin 5. These are believed to represent field boundaries, plough furrows and tyre tracks from farm machinery and are therefore of little archaeological significance.
