County: Kerry Site name: Creegooane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 21E0714
Author: Laurence Dunne
Site type: Hearth, post- and stake-holes
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 480727m, N 622681m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.342745, -9.750480
The rescue excavation at Creegooane, Co. Kerry took place in October 2021 as a result of the discovery of a number of features during unlicensed archaeological monitoring of topsoil stripping associated with Phase 4 of an extension to Ardfert Quarry. In total fourteen features were recorded and excavated including: a hearth and a charcoal spread associated with it; three post-holes; seven stake-holes; one amorphous isolated pit and a small charcoal splodge. No artefacts were recovered.
The most distinctive feature recorded was a hearth manifest as an in-situ fire-reddened oblong area orientated north-west/south-east. Excavation revealed a shallow cut to the feature that was filled with a mid-brown soft sandy silt with occasional small stones and charcoal flecks. Also, excavation revealed the full extent of the burnt in-situ subsoil which measured 1.9m x 0.8-0.4m and a smaller shallow cut of the hearth. The cut was recorded at the western part of the in situ burnt area. Immediately to the south of the hearth a charcoal-enriched deposit (1.7m x 0.4m x 0.1m) was recorded. It comprised of black soft silty sand with frequent charcoal chunks. The deposit that is currently interpreted as material from the cleaning of the nearby hearth. Two radiocarbon dates have been returned that extend from the late or Iron Age to the Early Medieval period.
3 Lios na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee Co. Kerry
