County: Kilkenny Site name: Parksgrove, Ballyragget, Ballyconra
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 22E0813
Author: Gill McLoughlin
Site type: Burnt mounds, kiln, Beaker pit, post-medieval work surface
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 642453m, N 671277m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.790829, -7.370589
Test trenching was carried out at the site of a permitted solar farm in response to a condition of planning from Kilkenny County Council. Testing followed a geophysical survey (Licence no. 17R0041) and took place over 2 weeks from 7th November 2022. Due to the large number of previously unknown sites discovered in the geophysical survey which were subsequently added to the SMR, the proposed development boundary was altered to exclude the majority of the known sites from the development area. Two enclosures, sites KK004-049 and KK004-050, are within the development redline boundary but have been designated as exclusion areas within the development and as such were not subjected to testing.
The testing layout was designed to target potential archaeological sites or features as indicated in the geophysical survey and to test randomly selected areas as control trenches. Of the 76 test trenches excavated, archaeological features or deposits were identified in 32 trenches and of those, 22 trenches contained either intact burnt mounds, spreads of burnt mound material or pits and troughs associated with ploughed-out burnt mounds, typified by the presence of heat-shattered stone and/or blackened soil. Other features identified included a probable kiln, a post-medieval cobbled work area, a possible metalled pathway and an assortment of pits, one of which contained Beaker pottery.
c/o Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy, Lynwood House, Ballinteer Road, Dublin 16
