2011:358 - BALLYBRACKEN CHURCH, FASAGH, Kildare

An assessment comprising a desktop study, a geophysical survey and test excavations took place for a proposed extension to Ballybracken cemetery, Fasagh td, Kildangan. Ballybracken church and graveyard is a national monument in the guardianship of Kildare County Council. Its origins can be traced to the 13th century, when it was constituted as the parish church for the small Anglo-Norman manor of Ballybracken. The church appears to have fallen into decay at the Reformation and today only its foundations survive. The geophysical survey revealed a number of ditches and areas of burning, and these were targeted by a test-excavation programme.
Testing revealed the plough-damaged remains of what are probably two late prehistoric (perhaps Bronze Age) ring-barrows in the northern sector of the site. In the south, a corn-drying kiln, a smelting furnace, ditches and gullies of medieval date were found. These probably formed components of a manorial centre, of a type typically found in or near the residence of the lord of the manor.
The two ring-ditches discovered in Trenches 9 and 10 were furthest away from Ballybracken church. The first was 6.7m in diameter and defined by a perimeter ditch that was 0.6m wide in the north and 0.4m in the south. In the south the fill was a consistent dark blackish-brown ash and charcoal silty clay with occasional fragments of burnt stone. It changed in the northern section of the ring-ditch to a light brown silty clay with pockets of charcoal and ash. At the centre of the ditch the possible remnants of a central mound could be seen. This was 1.9m in diameter and was a dark brown silty clay. The second ring-ditch was present at the western end of Trench 9. The small area opened makes it difficult to estimate its diameter but it appears to have been in the region of 10–12m.
The iron-smelting furnace was identified immediately west of a possible archaeological ditch in Trench 4. This matched one of the geophysical anomalies. It was a 2.1m-diameter circular deposit of charcoal and fire-reddened soil and ash. The charcoal was confined to a ring around the perimeter of the feature, while the interior was filled with redeposited orange subsoil and patches of fired clay—presumably collapse from the domed roof of the furnace. Trench 5 contained a number of archaeological features, including a linear ditch and the drying kiln. The kiln extended beneath the eastern baulk of the trench, so its full size is unknown. Its visible extent measured 3m north–south by 1.3m. It may turn out to be figure-of-eight-shaped because its western side curves in and then out again. Two pieces of medieval pottery, including a piece of locally manufactured green-glazed earthenware, were found on the surface. Elsewhere on the site there were curving drainage ditches of recent date.
None of these features will be disturbed, as a new location has been set for the cemetery extension in light of these discoveries. This will be tested in 2012.

Kilkenny Archaeology, Threecastles, Co. Kilkenny