2026:256 - Brusselstown Ring, Wicklow

During the first two weeks of May 2026 an excavation was carried out on the south-western slope of Brusselstown Ring (WI027-078001-). Two test trenches (T5 and T6) had originally been projected, but excavation of T5 was subsequently postponed, to enable an extension of the excavation of T6. In contrast to T1–T5, which were located on micro-topographical anomalies identified by an aerial photogrammetry survey previously conducted by James O’Driscoll, the structure across which T6 was placed was first identified close to the location of T4 in the course of a walkover survey during the 2025 campaign. The principal aim of the investigation was to identify the function of the structure – tentatively interpreted as a possible cistern prior to excavation – and to provide dating evidence, with a view to determining its chronological relationship with the house platforms investigated in T1–T4 (excavated in 2024 and 2025 under this same licence), which had provided mostly Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age radiocarbon dates. Initial results from T6 indicate that the structure first identified during the 2025 walkover survey did not serve as a cistern but was build as a platform, larger and more substantial than those explored in T1–T4, but in contrast to the latter lacking any sign of a prepared floor surface. Structural evidence documented in T6 consists of a stone kerb/terrace wall foundation where the platform was terraced into the slope and what appear to be the remains of a revetment constructed from organic material to the inside of that kerb. Abundant charcoal but no artefacts were recovered from T6.