Ringfort - rath

The National Monuments Service's description

On a S-facing slope in pasture. Excavated in 2006-7 in advance of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford Road Improvement Scheme. Excavation licence no. 2517, AR053, Area C. One of a cluster of monuments found in close proximity to each other in an area c. 1.8ha with dates ranging from the Late Neolithic to the early medieval period. A circular area (int. diam. 30-33m) defined by a fosse (av. Wth 3.25m; av. D 1.4m) with a U-shaped profile. Approximately 80% of the fosse was excavated with the remainder preserved outside the limit of excavation. Excavation revealed several fills which suggested the presence of an internal bank. An entrance was apparent at E. A dumb-bell shaped cereal-drying kiln in the SW quadrant contained a skeleton (KK031-083----) in its northern terminus. The kiln also produced disarticulated human remains from another individual. A number of scattered pits and post-holes were also present in the interior. The ringfort partially overprinted an earlier palisade enclosure (KK031-076----). Animal bone from the base of the ringfort ditch suggests a date of Cal AD 720—892 (UB10492), slightly later than the latest dated inhumation from the linear cemetery (Cal AD 566—645 (UB11216)) c. 140m to the N (KK031-085----). Three groups of small circular ring-slot structures survive outside the ringfort and appear contemporary with it (KK031-077----, KK031-078----, KK031-079----). Field boundaries forming a field system (KK031-084----) extend up to the ringfort, radiating out from it. The lines of these boundaries are partially preserved by the existing boundaries. A gap in one of the field boundaries (c. 19m to the E) is aligned with the E entrance to the ringfort. (Channing 2009, 255-6, no. 1003; 2010a, 234, no. 881; 2010b)

Compiled by: Mary Tunney

Date of upload: 25 September 2013

References

Channing 2010a Baysrath. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2007: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 234, no. 881. Bray. Wordwell.

Channing, J. 2009 AR053/54, Baysrath. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2006: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 255-6, no. 1003. Bray. Wordwell.

Channing, J. 2010b N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford: Waterford to Powerstown – Phase 2 Archaeological resolution, Final Report, 3 vols. A032, E2517, Site AR53/54, Baysrath, Co Kilkenny. Unpublished excavation report submitted to the National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin.