Metalworking site

The National Monuments Service's description

On the S side of a U-shaped E-W valley adjacent to a tributary that joins the King’s River at the village of Ennisnag. Excavated in 2007 in advance of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford road improvement scheme (Licence no. E3617). A number of pits containing slag, a probable smelting furnace and a possible smithing hearth were found in close proximity to a ring-ditch (KK023-160----). An adjacent linear field boundary ditch (KK023-162----) is thought to have been open at the time of the metal working on site as slag and metallurgical waste material was identified within its basal fills. A small area of metalled surface adjacent to the field boundary may have been a working platform and four pits located along the line of the boundary ditch all contained metallurgical waste. The remains of a possible charcoal production pit were found 17m from the metalworking area in the northernmost part of the site. The charcoal was potentially for use in the furnace or the bloom smithing hearth. A sample from the furnace yielded a radiocarbon date of cal AD 7-125 (UBA-15552). (Jennings 2010, 245, 920; Jennings and Coughlan 2012)

Compiled by: Mary Tunney

Date of upload: 2 December 2013

References

Jennings, R. and Coughlan, T. 2012 N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford Scheme: Phase 4 – Knocktopher to Powerstown. Final report. Ministerial Direction: A032. Registration No. E3617. Site AR077, Danesfort 13. Unpublished report submitted to the National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin.

Jennings, R. 2010 AR077, Ennisnag. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavatios 2007: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 245, no. 920. Bray. Wordwell.