Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Ring-ditch
Ballydavis, County Laois, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Ballydavis
- County
- Laois
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- NULL
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 53.05034, -7.24144
- SMR number
- LA013-112003-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
During archaeological monitoring conducted on the Portlaoise Bypass an extensive Iron Age complex and associated features were discovered in the townland of Ballydavis. A full-scale excavation followed during the period May-Nov. 1995. The site lay atop a low knoll (130 OD), some 4km north-east of Portlaoise town. The approximate area covered was 250m x 130m. The complex consisted of four ring-ditches, seven furnaces, and a series of pits and post-holes. Two smaller ring-ditches (Sites 3 and 4) were also excavated. Site 3 measured 6m in diameter and lay 26m to the north-east of Site 1. The ditch, which contained a mixed fill of charcoal and burnt bone, measured 0.5m in depth and had a maximum width of 1.2m. There was no entrance to the site. Finds from the ditch include four decorated glass beads, of a similar nature to Guido's 'Meare-spiral' type, three decorated bone pieces, a possible hilt of bone and a bead spacer of stone.
Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of upload: 17 December 2007
Nearby in the register
- Ring-ditchunder 1 mi
- Metalworking siteunder 1 mi
- Ring-ditchunder 1 mi
- Ring-ditchunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.