2016:259 - BHANOGUE SOUTH 1 (AN BHÁNÓG THEAS 1), Kerry

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Kerry Site name: BHANOGUE SOUTH 1 (AN BHÁNÓG THEAS 1)

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E004664

Author: Bruce Sutton IAC Ltd

Site type: OCCUPATION SITE AND AGRICULTURAL FEATURES

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 454075m, N 601360m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.144793, -10.132159

Stage (iii) archaeological excavation at An Bhánóg Theas 1 (Ministerial Direction No.: A070) was undertaken in advance of the N86 Lispole to Ballynasare Lower & Ballygarret to Camp Road Improvement Scheme in County Kerry. All works were funded by Transport Infractructure Ireland (TII).

An Bhánóg Theas 1 consisted of a number of pits, post-holes, stake-holes and a hearth, all under a layer of charcoal-rich clay. Shallow linear features appeared to form boundaries to the east and west. Two curvilinear slot trenches on site also appeared associated with this activity.

A large number of linear agricultural features crossed the area, forming two distinct phases of agriculture: an earlier phase of ridge and furrow and a later phase of ploughing. A section across the townland boundary between An Bhánóg Theas and Garraí na dTor indicated that an earlier ditch and bank boundary lay under the current earthen bank boundary. Two cuttings across the line of an earlier 18th-century road revealed that nothing remains of any original stoned road surface. The road now exists as a linear cutting into the clay natural subsoil and bedrock.

A copy of the final excavation report has been published in the TII Digital Heritage Collections on the Digital Repository of Ireland. It can be accessed with this link https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.j099c019b.

A report on the excavations undertaken on this road scheme has been published: Sutton, B. (2020) ‘Transience and Permanency – Four Thousand years of settlement on the Dingle Peninsula: Archaeological Excavations near Lispole and Camp in advance of the N86 Road Scheme (2015-2016)’. Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society, Series 2, Vol 19 (2019), pg. 35–62 (https://www.kerryhistory.ie/product/series-2-vol-19-2019/).

Unit G1, Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow