County: Kilkenny Site name: Castlegannon
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 12E0430
Author: PATRICK WALSH
Site type: Prehistoric and medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 655633m, N 631560m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.432688, -7.181875
Site 18-2, 3 Castlegannon was discovered during monitoring of topsoil stripping for the Bord Gáis Networks Gas to Great Island scheme (12E0356). Two distinct areas of archaeological activity were investigated.
Area 18-2 contained ten pits and a kiln. The pits ranged in size from 0.36m by 0.23m to 2.6m by 1.85m and were 0.05-0.67m deep. Some of the pits had charcoal-rich fills and one pit yielded sherds of prehistoric pottery, as yet unidentified. The keyhole-shaped kiln was approximately 6m long and aligned south-east to north-west with the chamber at the north-west end. The chamber, which measured 1.75m by 1.7m and was 0.28m deep, was partially stone lined. The flue, which was up to 1.1m wide, also showed evidence of having been stone lined. A shallow linear feature extending from the kiln chamber to the north-west could have been the remains of a second flue. A radiocarbon date for the kiln is pending.
Area 18-3 revealed five pits, the largest of which measured 0.7m by 0.53m and 0.1m deep. All the pits had charcoal-rich fills and one contained burnt bone that could potentially represent a cremation burial, although analysis of the bone has yet to be carried out.
TVAS (IRELAND) LTD, AHISH, BALLINRUAN, CRUSHEEN, CO.
