Field system

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, AR053-4, Area B, C, D, E. 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 series of field boundaries extend up to a ringfort (KK031-082----) and radiating out from it. The lines of these boundaries are partially preserved by the existing boundaries. The boundaries were both linear and curvilinear with narrow causeways forming entrances. One such entrance was aligned with the E entrance of the ringfort. No physical evidence of banks survived prior to excavation but in some cases the location of banks could be suggested by both stratigraphy and the arrangement of ditch terminals at the various entrances/ gateways. The excavations did not produce any evidence of fortified gateways, although the narrow causeway passages could have had some defensive function. None of the fills were dated due to presumed water movement within. Some boundaries extended outside the limits of the excavation to the W, SW, E and SE. (Channing 2009, 255-6, no. 1003; 2010a, 234, no. 881; 2010b)

Compiled by: Mary Tunney

Date of upload: 25 September 2013

References

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 2010a Baysrath. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2007: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 234, no. 881. 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 Unpublished excavation report submitted to the National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin.