2017:249 - Knockmullen, Wexford

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Wexford Site name: Knockmullen

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 17E0665

Author: Seán Shanahan, Shanarc Archaeology Ltd

Site type: Burnt pit/hearth

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 715757m, N 658721m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.667290, -6.288564

A total of 20 test trenches were monitored at Knockmullen, Ramstown Lower, Gorey, Co. Wexford in accordance with Condition No.17 of Wexford County Council Planning Reg. No. 20170786.

The Phase 1 area of the site is located on lightly undulating ground, with a gradual downward slope toward the townland boundary which is formed by the river Banoge to the east.

With the exception of Trench 1 in which the earliest natural deposit was composed of brown to grey-brown gravel, a common stratigraphy was found through all the test trenches. The earliest deposit in all other trenches was a natural layer of mid-grey to yellow-grey silty clay and gravel.

This layer was sealed by a layer of mid to dark-brown silty topsoil, 0.2-0.5m in depth. Occasional flecks of charcoal where found within the topsoil of all trenches indicating probable land/brush wood clearance activities. There was moderate root contamination along existing and former field boundaries.

Of the twenty test trenches excavated, five produced pottery finds, and one trench produced an archaeological feature in the form of a burnt pit / hearth.

Unit 39A Hebron Business Park, Hebron Rd, Kilkenny