Flat cemetery

The National Monuments Service's description

On a gentle SSW-facing slope, in pasture, on the N side of Schoolhouse Road, Castletroy. Not depicted on OS historic mapping. Identified by Flor Hurley in 2003 during monitoring (License No. 03E1382) for a housing scheme known as Glantan and excavated (License No. 03E1717) by Niamh O’Callaghan later in 2003. In Area 2 (125m to N of Area 1), a number of features (F25-F56) were recovered and consisted of 90 circular pits (F25-F56) covering a roughly rectangular-shaped area (12m x 6m). There was no evidence for an enclosing element or superstructure recorded in this area. All but twelve pits contained fragments of cremated bone. One of the cremations was contained in a pot, which was block-lifted, however was in a poor state of preservation upon conservation and little of the pot survived. Nevertheless, a capstone which had helped to cover the pot had assisted in the preservation of the cremated remains contained within. Out of 90 pits excavated, 22 contained fragments of pottery and 6 had a substantial quantity of sherds. Preliminary identification by a prehistoric pottery specialist suggests a Late Bronze Age date (Helen Roche, pers. comm.) (ibid).

See attached plan extract from monitoring report (Hurley 2003).

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly

Date of upload: 30 June 2020

References

O’Callaghan, N. 2006 Kilbane, Castletroy; Bronze Age Landscape. In I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2003: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 309, No. 1150. Bray. Wordwell.

Hurley, F. 2003 Archaeological monitoring at Kilbane, Castletroy, Co. Limerick. License no. 03E1382. Unpublished report for the National Monument Service, Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht, Dublin.