2017:201 - Landscape 3, Wexford

The site was identified during monitoring of the construction phase of the N25 New Ross Bypass PPP Scheme in July 2017 (Registration No. E04661). Monitoring followed from a series of previous investigations across the scheme and was specified for 13 previously untested areas (UTA). Landscape 3 was identified as a truncated spread of burnt mound material in UTA-8.

Landscape 3 comprised a two-phase burnt mound spread that sealed a plank-lined trough. The trough was sealed beneath a peat deposit which separated it from the burnt mound deposits in a wetland area at Landscape, New Ross. A modern, curvilinear, stone-filled drain crossed the north-eastern side of the site in running north-north-west to south-east. This feature cut through natural glacial gravels and was abutted by a deposit of grey brown sandy clay with decayed stone inclusions and partially truncated one of the burnt mound deposits.

The cut for the trough was sub-rectangular in plan with gently sloping sides and a flat base. It was lined with a layer of moss and five oak planks and filled in three phases. The primary phase consisted of a layer of grey clay sedimentation followed by a backfilled deposit of black silty sand, covering the timbers of the trough. The secondary phase consisted of a naturally formed deposit of grey brown sand beneath a backfilled deposit of grey sand and frequent large sub-rounded stones, mainly in the south-eastern end of the trough. The final phase was indicated by two deposits, both naturally formed. The first, a silty peat deposit, was followed by a sand deposit with iron panning.

Three successive deposits, possibly representing upcast from the digging of the trough, were recorded just west of it. These consisted of a primary deposit of light yellow brown sand with river gravels, beneath a secondary deposit of reddish brown silty clay and a final deposit of light grey sandy clay with frequent angular stone inclusions.

The trough, its fills and the possible upcast from its excavation were sealed beneath an extensive deposit of dark orange brown silty peat. Six pieces of alder wood, four of which may have been worked, were recovered from it. This spread of peat separated the trough from the subsequent burnt mound spreads, indicating they were not contemporary. It is possible that the trough is associated with a further, undiscovered spread of burnt mound material, beyond the lands acquired for road construction to the east or north-east, i.e. under the existing R733 road.

A spread of burnt mound material formed over the extensive peat spread comprised dark grey black sand and charcoal. It was separated by a localised grey clay deposit from a deliberately deposited dark brown clayey sand layer with angular stone inclusions. This phase of the burnt mound spread was in turn separated from a final phase by two thin deposits of light grey clayey sand and light grey brown silty sand. The final phase was marked by the deliberate deposition of black, charcoal-rich silty sand and heat-affected stone. The final phase was cut by a sub-circular pit with a U-shaped profile and filled with dark brown silty clay with root inclusions. Wood samples, most likely natural, were recovered from a layer of peat that sealed most of the site, beneath the topsoil.

IAC Ltd, Unit G1, Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow