County: Kilkenny Site name: Brownstown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KK014-068; KK014-071001; KK014-071002; KK014-120----; KK014-121----; KK014-128----; KK019-015----; KK019-148--- Licence number: 23E0081
Author: Liam Coen c/o Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy
Site type: Testing, various site types
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 652887m, N 659103m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.680500, -7.217868
Test excavations took place on a site over two phases in April and June 2023. The site was located within the townland of Brownstown outside Kilkenny City and was comprised of a series of arable and pasture fields, measuring just under 90 hectares. The purpose of the programme of archaeological testing was to establish if anomalies identified through geophysical survey (Nichols, 2022a; 2022b; 2023) were archaeological and if so, the nature, extent and character of any remains.
99 trenches were excavated over two phases. 34 of those contained archaeological features or deposits. The assessment of the site, comprising a desktop study, walkover survey, geophysical survey and licensed test excavations, resulted in the identification of a total of 41 archaeological sites or features. The majority of these sites comprise the remains of prehistoric burnt mounds/fulachtaí fiadh in varying states of preservation but also include a substantial double-ditched enclosure near to an existing upstanding ringfort (KK014-068) and the delineation of the remains of another ringfort or enclosed medieval settlement (KK019-015 & KK019-0148) that had been levelled in recent decades.
References:
Nicholls, J. 2022a. ‘Phase 1 geophysical survey. Proposed solar farm development in Brownstown townland, County Kilkenny. Licence no.: 22R0159’. Unpublished report: Target Archaeological Geophysics.
Nicholls, J. 2022b. ‘Phase 2 geophysical survey. Proposed solar farm development in Brownstown townland, County Kilkenny. Licence no.: 22R0159’. Unpublished report: Target Archaeological Geophysics.
Nicholls, J. 2023 ‘Geophysical Survey Report, Phase 3 geophysical survey, Proposed solar farm development in, Brownstown townland, County Kilkenny, Licence no. 22R0159’. Unpublished report: Target Archaeological Geophysics.
Lynwood House, Ballinteer, Dublin 16
