Enclosure

The National Monuments Service's description

Enclosure (Newtown E) excavated prior to the construction of the M7 National Road. Archaeological material initially identified during test trenching carried out under Licence No. 00E0853 in advance of the Limerick Southern Ring-Road Project (Hayes 2000). The results of the testing recorded numerous features and ‘surface finds of Bronze Age funerary pottery and a fragment of an Early Christian glass armlet’ (www.excavations.ie 2001:787; Hayes 2001, 241). Excavations in 2001 by Frank Coyne under Licence No. 01E0214 revealed the remains of a sub-rectangular enclosure, 25m west of a second enclosure (LI006-092006-), 2 hut sites (LI006-092003-/-092004-), Cremation pit (LI006-092005-) and other miscellaneous features (LI006-092002-)(www.excavations.ie 2001:79; Coyne 2003, 242, Coyne 2001). The results of the excavated enclosure listed as Newtown E, were summarised as following; 'part of a sub-rectangular enclosure, defined by an L-shaped ditch in the north and west (Dims. 15.5 N-S x 27.3m E-W, D. 1.32m), disturbance by machine activity and a field boundary in the east; it was not fully excavated as it continued beyond the line of the road to the south' (Coyne 2001, 115).

Compiled by: Fiona Rooney

Date of upload: 16 June 2020

References

Hayes, A. 2003 Newtown, Co. Limerick Testing. In I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2001: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 241 (No. 787). Bray. Wordwell.

Coyne, F. 2003 Newtown, Co. Limerick Multi period site. In I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2001: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 242 (No. 791). Bray. Wordwell.

Coyne, F. 2001 Archaeological report on the excavation at Newtown (A & E), Co. Limerick found during the monitoring of the Limerick Southern Ring Road Phase 1. Unpublished report (Licence No. 01E0214) submitted by Aegis Archaeology Ltd. on behalf of Limerick Co. Co. to the National Monuments Service, Dúchas