2024:775 - Drinagh North, Wexford

The testing was undertaken as part of a further information request for the proposed construction of a new storage facility in the townland of Drinagh North c. 4km south of Wexford Town.

A geophysical survey (Licence 24R0510) was completed by John Nicholl (Target Archaeological Geophysics Ltd), which discovered a circular embanked enclosure. The feature lies outside of the site under review, the access road as well as all other elements of the proposal. The design will take cognisance of the feature in order to avoid any impact. The geophysical data also highlight an abundance of small-scale positives, poorly defined linear anomalies, trends and clusters of response, all of which are of uncertain origin.

Based on the results of the geophysical survey, archaeological test-trenching was undertaken to test a number of linear features that were interpreted by Nicholls as relating to either natural geology, agriculture or land drainage.

Of the fifteen trenches excavated across the proposed development site, only one contained material of likely archaeological importance: several spreads of heat-affected stone, dark grey silt and charcoal were found in Trench 15. The remains are interpreted as a prehistoric water-boiling site associated with a pyrolithic technology, i.e. a type of monument known as a fulacht fia.

Other features identified in the test trenches correspond to agricultural drains and furrows most likely to be of relatively modern date (post 17th century) but probaly of later 19th- or early 20th-century date. One large ditch was identified extending across Trenches 3-6 but there was no evidence for the likely date of the field boundary.