County: Limerick Site name: Rossbrien, Limerick
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 23E0339
Author: Niall Gregory / Gregory Archaeology
Site type: Brick clamps
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 557628m, N 654853m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.643227, -8.626093
Archaeological Test Excavation, Impact Assessment & Visual Impact Assessment took place in May 2023, in relation to the proposed development of Limerick Ambulance Base at Rossbrien.
The test excavation revealed fragments of red brick and charcoal across the southern half of the site. This infers a brick works in the form of brick clamps residing on or close to the southern aspect of the site and being of 19th century, or earlier date. The brick works would most likely have taken advantage of the nearby Ballynaclogh River (c. 250m to south and southwest) as a necessary part of its operating. There appears to be no historical record of a brick works, nor is one cartographically depicted. However, a 19th-century paper mill is depicted a short distance to the south of the site, as is a lime kiln.
Other finds consisted of a clay tobacco pipe stem, sherds of 19th- to 20th-century pottery and a possible post-medieval pottery sherd, which was retrieved from Test Trench No. 7. The residual remains of a 19th-century field boundary depicted on the first edition 6 inch Ordnance Survey map was found in Test Trench No. 7. It was c. 1.4m in width and c. 0.2m in depth.
Dunburbeg, Clonmel Road, Cashel, Co. Tipperary
