County: Kilkenny Site name: RATHDUFF
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 11E0340
Author: Maurice F. Hurley
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 644990m, N 672266m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.799512, -7.332843
Testing was required for a Bord Gáis Éireann pipeline project at Rathduff, Stoneyford. The site lay adjacent to the Kings River. Low-lying land adjoins the riverbanks and then the valley sides began to rise gradually. No feature was recorded in any of the editions of the OS maps. In this area the river provides the boundary between the townlands of Rathduff and Lawcus. The area has been identified in a geophysical survey as ‘a concentration of responses potentially associated with a former structure’.
The soil profile was consistent for the entire excavation, i.e. 0.3m of brown topsoil over gritty clay subsoil.
When the full extent of the proposed trench layout had been excavated to subsoil level (c. 0.45–0.5m deep) and no anomaly was apparent, it was decided to excavate a few deep pits to ascertain what may have been causing the anomalous geophysical responses. At a depth of c. 1m gravel became apparent and this was excavated for a depth of c. 2m but continued below this depth. It appears likely that the anomalous geophysical responses were caused by this natural gravel.
6 Clarence Court, St Luke’s, Cork
