2018:811 - DOIRE FHIONÁIN MÓR, Kerry

Phase I of licensed works at Derrynanne comprised of
(1) an inspection of cashel KE106 -073;
(2) general photography and UAV imagery of the site;
(3) monitoring of and engagement with DNHP personnel of the vegetation clearance;
(5) commencement of measured and photographic survey of the souterrain; instrument topographic survey using a Total Station of the cashel co-eval with further UAV;
(6) hand-cleaning of targeted areas of the exterior and interior facing masonry. A limited area around the exterior of the caishel was judiciously and selectively cleared of dense overgrowth by DNHP staff under archaeological guidance and supervision. A small mini-digger was sparingly used around the densely overgrown external bedrock and to move cut trees away and flatten external vegetation, after which it was no longer employed. Other clearance included the removal of a number of young trees and the cutting and logging of a substantial dead tree that had fallen onto the cashel enclosure by an DNHP arborist.
Effectively the overall light-touch approach of cutting back scrub vegetation, removal of selective young trees around the immediate exterior and upper limits of the cashel and the similar cutting of the gorse, fern and briar of the interior was essential to the undertaking of the archaeological survey. The vegetation removal facilitated a close inspection and enabled for the first time, in possibly hundreds of years, a full perambulation of the exterior as well as accessing areas of the interior that had hithertofore been entirely overgrown.
Six areas, three internally and three externally, were cleaned down by hand by a team of three archaeologists using secateurs, trowel and stiff brushes to reveal the fabric of the facing masonry as well as growth around the partially revealed souterrain entrance in the interior western area and the exterior souterrain exit at the south-west.

3 Lios Na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee, Co. Kerry