2015:067 - Ardrahan, Kerry

Test trenching was undertaken at the proposed site of a quarry extension in Ardrahan, Ballyrobert and Creegooane townlands, Co. Kerry on behalf of Ardfert Quarry Products Ltd in accordance with recommendations made under the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2006 by the Kerry Co. Archaeologist. Fifteen trenches in all were excavated across the application area representing 3,070m linear meters.

There are no known monuments in the area tested and examination of available aerial photography did not indicate anything of archaeological interest. The test trenching identified 29 features (F1-29) which were all linear ditches the remains of levelled field boundaries. In addition, the existing townland boundary was investigated in Trench 10 (F30-31). The linear field ditches were all aligned north-west to south-east or north-east to south-west with only F2 and F3 aligned north-south. Most of the field ditches can be identified on the OS 1st edition six-inch mapping, OS 1st edition 25-inch mapping and the OS 1898 edition six-inch mapping as field boundaries. F13 was recently upstanding and can be seen on the 2005 OSI Orthophotography. All of the features identified during trenching form part of a system of mostly north-west to south-east and north-east to south-west-aligned 19th-century field divisions. A single find of archaeological interest is a copper alloy awl found at the base of the topsoil in Trench 9. This artefact, which may be of Bronze Age date, was not associated with any feature and appears to be a single stray find. The test trenching confirms the conclusions of the desk-based assessment and walk-over survey that the proposed development has no direct impacts on any known items of archaeological heritage.

2 Carrig Glen, Calverstown, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare