County: Kerry Site name: Lohercannan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 23E0007
Author: Michael Connolly
Site type: Unknown
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 481767m, N 614133m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.266172, -9.732223
Archaeological pre-development testing took place of Phase 2 of a social housing development on the western outskirts of Tralee in the townland of Lohercannan.
The test excavations at Lohercannan uncovered 61 individual, potential archaeological features though many of these are features that run across the site for some distance and were recorded in a number of the excavated trenches. These results are not dissimilar to those from the initial testing of the Phase 1 site to the south but there are less possible pits and/or post-holes, areas of burning and more examples of linear features.
Some of these linear features at least must relate to land improvement and drainage as the excavations suggest that depressions and holes in this area of land have been filled in over a long period of time, indeed the debris often found in what were clearly land drains and thus not recorded, as well as in areas of landfill, ranged from 20th-century debris to delph and glass that was early 19th century in character. The linear features recorded are not definitively land drains but it would be surprising if some were not shown to be such and others, as in the Phase 1 excavations, were not shown to be simply full of soil with no clear indicator of date or function.
The testing, area stripping and full excavation of the features uncovered on the Phase 1 site would suggest that the identified pits and post-holes are likely to date to the Middle Bronze Age or the Early Medieval period. It is also worth noting that a large proportion of the site remains unopened and untested and that further features are likely to survive in these untested areas
It is impossible to state with certainty that all the potential features recorded are archaeological. Some may prove to be quite shallow and ephemeral while others may well be modern (there was quite a lot of modern glass and delph in the topsoil across the site) but only full excavation can properly assess the nature of these features.
It is also important to note that investigation of the full extent of some of the features recorded during the testing may uncover further archaeological material and possible linkages and associations between these features.
Kerry County Council, Tralee
