County: Tipperary Site name: BALLYLUSKY, BALLINDERRY AND BALLYRICKARD NORTH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 11E0401
Author: James Eogan
Site type: 19th- and 20th-century boundaries and agricultural activity
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 590983m, N 689737m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.958052, -8.133491
Forty-six test trenches (aggregate length 3,565m) were excavated within lands that it was proposed to acquire for the N52 Congar realignment in the townlands of Ballylusky, Ballinderry and Ballyrickard North, 1.5km north of Ardcrony and 3km south of Borrisokane. There were no known or suspected archaeological remains located within or immediately adjacent to the lands being acquired for road construction; three sites are listed on the RMP within 0.5km of the scheme. The test trenches were excavated by mechanical excavator through fourteen pasture fields. The area of the trenches excavated represented a sample of c. 10% of the agricultural land being acquired. No archaeologically significant remains were identified. The only evidence for human activity encountered in the course of the excavation related to the division and amalgamation of fields, the construction and removal of field boundaries, and the quarrying/extraction of natural deposits of sand and gravel in the 19th and 20th centuries.
While there is evidence for a human presence in this part of north County Tipperary from the Early Neolithic at least, no evidence for archaeologically significant human activity was encountered in the area subject to test excavations. It may be that the generally thin topsoil and stony (in some cases sandy and gravelly) subsoil meant that this particular area was unattractive for settlement in the past.
National Roads Authority, Tramore House RDO, Tramore, Co. Waterford.
