2022:514 - Newtown (Barony of Shelmalier West), Wexford

A research excavation was undertaken for the Irish Archaeology Field School at the probable site of Carrick Borough (WX037-028003 - Historic Town) in Ferrycarrig, Co. Wexford from July-August 2022. Carrick Borough, located on the southern side of the River Slaney approximately 4km west of Wexford Town, is in private ownership and protected under the National Monuments Acts. The excavations followed on from a previous four-year research project at the adjacent site of Carrick ringwork and castle (WX037-028002: licence 17E0318) within the limits of the Irish National Heritage Park.
The keyhole excavations at Carrick Borough were informed by a previous historic landscape assessment of the site, including geophysical surveys in 2018; archaeological testing was also previously undertaken at the site by Catherine McLoughlin in 2006 (05E1405). Based on this previous work two cuttings were excavated in 2022 as follows:
Cutting 1 (measuring 6m x 2m) was positioned to assess the possible southern boundary of the borough, which is indicated on the Down Survey Map (1656-8) as defining the unit of Ballandsland but could also relate to an older medieval town boundary;
Cutting 2 (measuring 13m x 2m) was positioned to assess high-amplitude responses identified in geophysical surveys including an anomaly which may be evidence of a Bronze Age ring-ditch.
Excavations were undertaken over a four week period, after which both cuttings were fully backfilled and re-seeded.
In Cutting 1 a small ditch was identified but unfortunately this could not be clarified as medieval; this ditch was also re-cut by a smaller post-medieval/modern field boundary. However, the bank associated with this ditch, while predominantly containing c. 19th-century pottery, does seem to overly a medieval relict sod layer (based on the recovery of twelfth- to fourteenth-century pottery).
Within Cutting 2 a shallow ditch, representing the ring-ditch identified during geophysical survey, was confirmed (as was an adjacent probable prehistoric pit). A ‘medieval’ linear feature recorded during the 2006 archaeological testing at the site was also relocated and sectioned. Unfortunately, the other anomalies identified in the 2018 geophysical surveys seem to relate to modern disturbance of the site.
While the artefacts from the excavation continue to be assessed the majority of the finds from the excavation (n= c. 235) were struck flints, cores or debitage from flint working. Surprisingly most of the pottery from the site was post-medieval (n=122), with only c. 48 pieces of medieval pottery recorded; this is a direct reverse of the pattern of potteries recorded from the Carrick Castle site and indicates that the field where the excavation took place, while two medieval features were recorded, is likely at the fringes of the medieval settlement of Carrick. The number of prehistoric finds also indicates the field contains and/or is located close to a prehistoric settlement/burial site; a collared urn burial (WX037-029-) was located directly north of the excavation site in 1984.

Johns Hall, Birr, Co. Offaly