2024:723 - Ballyconra 7, Kilkenny

Stage (iii) Excavations were undertaken at Ballyconra 7 as part of the N77 Ballyragget Village to Ballynaslee Road Improvement Scheme, Co. Kilkenny. Excavation took place between 27 May and 5 July 2024.
The site of Ballyconra 7 consisted of an annular ring-ditch, with external measurements of 15m north to south by 14m. An amber-coloured bead was recovered from the earliest construction phase. The ditch cut had been lined with clay, presumably shortly after its excavation to prevent the collapse of the ditch sides. Much of its base was cut by a stone-filled drainage gully lining, probably to aid drainage into the natural gravel. Seven boulders were present at the base of the ditch, six of which were positioned approximately equidistant within the eastern and south-western part of the ring-ditch. It is speculated that these originallystood on the interior of the ring-ditch. There were three distinctive fills, which appear to represent silting and possibly deliberate backfilling. A large cluster of semiarticulated animal bone was found at the base of the uppermost fill in one area. The fills of the ring-ditch produced, among other finds, several antler tines. A Nauheim derivative copper alloy fibula brooch, possibly of Late Iron Age date, was retrieved from one of the ditch fills.
At least two burials had been inserted into the final ring-ditch backfill. One was an
extended east–west supine inhumation in a good state of preservation. The other
appeared to have been of similar type but had been heavily truncated by later
activity.
At a number of locations, the ring-ditch had been cut by later, possibly post-medieval
pits or gullies. In addition, most of the ditch in the south-east quadrant and in the
south had been heavily truncated by a post-medieval/early modern robbed-out
mortared limestone wall that ran northeast/southwest though the site. The site was also the site of forestry planation. Further modern truncation also occurred to the southern and eastern extents of the site, potentially related to the earlier widening/landscaping of the western embankment of the N77.