Ring-ditch

The National Monuments Service's description

In wet pasture 20m N of the townland boundary with Stephenstown. Not depicted on OSi historic maps. Curvilinear ditch (BGE 2/25/6) excavated by Eoin Grogan in 1986 during works associated with the Bórd Gáis Éireann gas pipeline, the results of which were summarised as follows; ‘The features revealed in the excavation of an area 11.50m x 7.50m included a curved ditch delimiting the site on the north. It enclosed a large pit, two small shallow pits and a number of stake holes. A further large pit occurred to the south of the ditch, roughly inside its curve. After excavation it was interpreted as unrelated structurally to the ditch. To the east, outside the ditch and pits, was a group of shallow features and stake holes.
The curved ditch was 8m long ending in two dissimilar curved terminals. It was 60cm-lm in width and 15-30cm deep. It appeared to have been heavily truncated on its western (narrower and shallower) side. The fill included a layer of intense in situ burning though no structural features were recognised. It yielded fragments of cremated bone mixed with fragments of burnt and un-burnt animal bone.
The large pit ‘enclosed’ by the ditch lay 85cm inside the central portion of the ditch. It was roughly square in plan (1.65m x 1.34m x 48cm) with steep sides and a flat base. It produced a quantity of unburnt animal bone and an unburnt human mandible in the fill. Also recovered were sherds of coarse, undecorated pottery and a struck flint flake. Two pairs of stake holes flanked the pit on either side, which may indicate a simple stake setting or possibly some sort of canopy over the pit. The two other shallow pits measured 59cm x 53cm x 13cm and 40cm x 35cm x 5cm respectively. There were no finds in these.
The second large pit [LI040-245----], 3m to the south-east of the curved trench, continued beyond the fence line. The excavated portion had a roughly square plan with steep sides and a gently curved base. It measured 1.75m x 1.54m x 56cm. The fill contained flecks of cremated bone and two sherds of coarse undecorated pottery. There were also some fragments of animal bone in the fill. The group of features lying up to 2m from those described included a small oval pit and several post and stake holes. No finds were recovered from the fill of these features' (Gowen 1988, 94-8; Grogan 1987, 22-3). Monument has been fully excavated and is not visible on aerial images.

Compiled by: Martin Fitzpatrick

Date of upload: 21 June 2021

References

Grogan, E. 1987 Adamstown (BGE); Bronze Age ditch and enclosed features. In C. Cotter (ed.) Excavations 1986: Summary Accounts of Archaeological Excavations in Ireland, 22-3, No. 36. Wordwell, Dublin.

Gowen, M. 1988 Three Irish gas pipelines: new archaeological evidence in Munster. Bray. Wordwell.