County: Kilkenny Site name: Kilmurry and Gorteens
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 17E0294
Author: Deirdre Murphy
Site type: Kilns, spreads, pits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 663921m, N 612876m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.263867, -7.063572
A total of 107 test trenches were excavated throughout the nine fields that comprise the site as part of an archaeological assessment carried out by Deirdre Murphy and Robert Breen of ACSU. One of the fields (Field 9) was too overgrown with trees that would require felling before any testing could take place. The remaining eight fields were tested. Over 14,500 linear metres of test trench were excavated throughout the site.
The testing results confirmed earlier evidence, provided by a geophysical survey, for earlier field boundaries which were removed over the last 150 years. These ditches were all quite shallow (less than 0.5m in depth) and were all shown by the testing to be of relatively modern origin. There was no evidence found in the testing to suggest that the group of dwellings shown on the first edition 6 inch map along the east side of the site were of pre-19th-century date and none of the linear features identified on the geophysical survey in Fields 6 and 7 were of any antiquity and did not represent burgage plots. The fields all appear to have been intensively farmed over the centuries and almost all the features uncovered were heavily ploughed-out and truncated. Cultivation furrows were identified in Fields 1 and 6 in the geophysical survey and their presence was confirmed by the testing. The remaining geophysical anomalies consisted for the most part of modern land drains and services.
A number of features of archaeological significance were exposed throughout the site and all appear to be relatively isolated. Seven probable kilns (F6, F8, F12, F19, F30, F43 and F54), five burnt stone spreads or fulachta fiadh (F23, F28, F35, F37 & F55), thirteen pits (F18, F24, F25, F38, F40, F45 & F47-53), one possible brick kiln (F27) and the remains of a 19th-century cottage (F34) were identified. These features, though apparently isolated, are of archaeological significance and illustrate the archaeological potential of the site. The burnt stone spreads were for the most part identified along the western edge of the stream that runs southwards through the site and there is the potential for more to be discovered.
Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit, Unit 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth
