County: Kilkenny Site name: Parksgrove & Ballyconra
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 22E0811
Author: Gill McLoughlin
Site type: Settlement cluster
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 643596m, N 671496m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.792706, -7.353614
Test trenching was carried out over three days from 21 November 2022 in the townlands of Parksgrove and Ballyconra, Ballyragget, Co. Kilkenny, in response to a condition of planning from Kilkenny County Council for a permitted solar farm.
The archaeological testing follows on from a geophysical survey (Licence no. 22R0192) carried out by Target Archaeological Geophysics Ltd in June 2022 and an Archaeological Impact Assessment (Deery, 2022).
A series of shallow linear features interpreted as agricultural furrows and two linear possible field boundaries or drainage features were identified in the test trenches. All of these features corresponded with linear anomalies indicated in the geophysical survey and there was no evidence from the archaeological testing that any of these features were of archaeological significance.
No dateable finds were recovered from any of the tested features, all of which were uncovered at a depth of between 0.3m and 0.4m. No features or deposits of archaeological interest were identified as a result of the testing.
The testing avoided areas of definite & probable archaeology based on the geophysical survey results and these areas will be avoided by the proposed development.
c/o Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy, Lynwood House, Ballinteer Road, Dublin 16
