County: Tipperary Site name: Thurles Regional Water Supply Scheme
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 12E0195
Author: Tim Coughlan & Brenda O' Meara
Site type: Prehistoric, early medieval and post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 606489m, N 657000m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.664140, -7.904070
Monitoring and excavation was carried out intermittently along the Thurles Regional Water Supply Scheme, located in the vicinity of Thurles, Co. Tipperary, between July 2012 and July 2014.
Six sites of archaeological potential were identified during monitoring which were subsequently subject to full excavation. Of these sites, identified in the townlands of Farneybridge, Knockanevin, Raheen, Holycross and Fertiana, only one had been previously identified, at Holycross 1. All of the sites were located in relatively flat, gently undulating landscape comprising of pasture and tillage in an area that that would generally have been very attractive for settlement from prehistory through to the post-medieval period. The site at Knockanevin 1 was the exception to this being located on a relatively steep sided south-east-facing slope, certainly not typical for the site type which are often in more low-lying marginal landscapes.
The sites at Farneybridge 1 and 2 and Knockanevin 1 were associated with burnt mound activity and were all dated to the Bronze Age, although none were contemporary.
The site at Raheen 1 was associated with early medieval cereal-drying activities.
Holycross 1 consisted of the remains of a medieval field boundary associated with a field system identified though a geophysics survey on adjacent lands to the south. This site was the only one also located within an area subject to advance archaeological testing.
The final site, Fertiana 1, comprised of the remains of three vernacular buildings probably associated with a post-medieval farmstead that was abandoned in the mid-late 1800s.
Further isolated pits were also identified, notably adjacent to Farneybridge 1 and 2, and these were recorded during the course of the monitoring.
While the results of these excavations are broadly of local significance, they confirm the merits and benefits of monitoring topsoil stripping of greenfield areas on infrastructural and other large-scale development projects.
IAC Ltd, Unit G1, Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow
