2019:444 - Gortcurreen 1, Kerry

Stage (iii) Excavation was carried out between 1 and 9 August 2019 at the site of Gortcurreen 1 in advance of construction of the N69 Listowel Bypass Scheme, Co. Kerry. The work was carried out under Ministerial Direction number A076 and Registration numbers E005087 (Excavation) and R000507 (Metal Detection), on behalf of Kerry County Council. The site was discovered in the north-west of the scheme in the townland of Gortcurreen during advance Stage (i) Test Excavations undertaken in 2018 by AMS.
The site comprised a series of worked timbers and the remains of a stave-built wooden vessel. The larger structural timbers revealed during the Stage (i) Test Excavations were at the time interpreted as ex situ components of a dismantled structure, postulated as the potential remains of a water mill somewhere in the vicinity. When the excavation area was revealed in its entirety in preparation for Stage (iii) Excavation, no features indicating the presence of a mill at the site were identified, and it became clear that the timbers were in secondary positions. Apart from the worked timbers and vessel, no other archaeological features or deposits were revealed at the site.
The most significant of the structural timbers recorded at the site were the morticed Timbers 1, 2 and 5. Two of these (Timber 2 and Timber 5) conjoined and had a total overall length of 5.55m. Timber 1 was of identical construction to Timbers 2 and 5. Although Timber 1 could not be conjoined to either Timber 2 or Timber 5, if it did originate from a single piece that comprised Timbers 1, 2 and 5, the overall length of the original piece would have been approximately 7.47m. The structural timbers have been tentatively interpreted as possible wall plates or floor support beams from a large structure.
A total of 25 staves of a stave-built wooden vessel, surviving in varying degrees of preservation, were retrieved from the excavation. The partial remains of a wooden binding hoop was also recovered, as well as two complete components and one incomplete component of a tripartite composite disc base.
A small assemblage of modern ceramic pottery sherds was retrieved from the vicinity of some of the structural timbers. The pottery was present within the peat overburden of the site and not in stratigraphically secure contexts, and any temporal relationship with the deposition of the timbers cannot be suggested.
Post-excavation analysis is ongoing, and it is hoped this analysis, including dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating, and comparative research, will further enhance our understanding of the site.

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