Ring-ditch

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in pasture. An isolated hearth (LI021-185----) lies 70m to SE. Monument identified in 1999 as a possible prehistoric settlement during monitoring of topsoil-stripping on the N20/N21 Adare to Annacotty Road Improvement Scheme (Eogan and Finn 2000, 158-9). It was excavated (License No. 99E0324) by James Eogan and Damian Finn and was described as a penannular-shaped ring-ditch (overall diam. 7m) with the ditch (max. D 0.5m) having a U-shaped profile. The pattern of silting in the ditch may suggest that there was an external bank. The main fill of the ditch was a charcoal-rich silt in which fourteen token deposits of cremated human bone were found (Eogan and Finn 1999, 1). One of the deposits contained a copper-alloy spiral ring (NMI Reg. No. 99E0324:5:29 & 30) and part of a decorated bone (NMI Reg. No. 99E0324:5:2) that is similar stylistically to a gaming-piece found in a cremation under a barrow at Cush, Co. Limerick (ibid). These artefacts suggest an Iron Age date for the filling of the ditch and the deposition of the cremations. Monument is not visible on Digital Globe orthophotos taken 2011-13 or on Google Earth orthoimages taken 28/06/2018.

See attached Google Earth orthoimage.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly

Date of upload: 6 August 2020

References

Eogan, J. and Finn, S. 1999 Preliminary report on the excavation of a ring-ditch, in Ballybronogue South townland, Co. Limerick. Archaeological Investigations along the N20/N21 Adare to Annacotty Road Improvement Scheme. License no. 99E0324. Unpublished report submitted to the National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Dublin.

Eogan, J. and Finn, D. 2000 Ballybronoge South: Ring-ditch. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1999: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 158-9 (No. 481). Bray. Wordwell.