Cremation pit

The National Monuments Service's description

In a housing scheme known as Adare Villas, 170m to SE of Adare Demesne townland boundary and 580m to W of the River Maigue, which also marks a boundary with Mountwilliam townland. A metalworking site, pits and drains (LI021-182001-) and an enclosure (LI021-18200-) lie 130m to NW and 240m to N, respectively. Not depicted on OS historic mapping. Features identified in 2005 by Ross McLeod and John Kavanagh during monitoring of topsoil stripping for a holiday home development on the lands of Adare Manor (McLeod and Kavanagh 2005, 1). Features excavated (Licence No. 05E0169) in 2005 and described as a cluster of small pits that contained human cremated bone. The quantity of bone recovered from each pit was small, similar to a token deposit, which is indicative of burial practices dating to the Bronze Age period.
In general, the area of the excavation and surrounding field had been under intensive agricultural activity for some time, reflected by the regular plough marks identified across the exposed surface of the field. Also hand-excavated field drains along with modern machine-cut examples were located across the site, demonstrating a continual process of land improvement.

See attached Google Earth orthoimages.

Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly

Date of upload: 10 August 2020

References

McLeod, R. and Kavanagh, J. 2005 Archaeological excavation report at Adare Manor, Boulabally Td, Co. Limerick. Unpublished report (Licence No. 05E0169), submitted by National Archaeological Services Ltd. to the National Monuments Service, Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government.