Pit

The National Monuments Service's description

In reclaimed pasture, an enclosure and barrow (LI049-059002/003-) lies 15m to the E. Not marked on OSi 6-inch maps. Three bronze age pits (site TR/2/16/3) excavated by Claire Walsh in 1986 on the Bórd Gáis Éireann Curraleigh West-Limerick gas pipeline (Gowen 1988, 80-81). The results of this excavation were described as following; ‘These features were revealed at a distance of c. 15m from the exposed enclosure ditch of the ring-barrow (no.45) [LI049-059002-] in an area which had been deeply scarped at the approach to a wet ditch. They occurred over a 12m stretch and all were severely truncated. Pit A was a hearth pit 67cm x 49cm x 13cm. Burnt animal bone was recovered from the fill. Pit B lay 12m from pit A. It was kidney-shaped in plan, measuring 1.30m X 50cm x 12cm. It had a charcoal-rich fill with heat-shattered stones, which yielded the smashed remains of a coarse undecorated pot which was inverted. Cremated bone also recovered from the fill could not be identified. Pit C lay just 50cm south-east of pit B. It was irregular in plan, measuring 33cm x 61cm x 13cm. The fill contained flecks of burnt bone' (Walsh 1987, 25). No surface remains visible on Digital Globe orthoimage taken between 2011-13 or on Google Earth orthoimages.

See attached location map and plans taken from Gowen 1988, 73, 80.

Compiled by: Fiona Rooney

Date of upload: 23 September 2021

References

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

Walsh, C. 1987 Duntryleague (BGE) Bronze Age Pits. In C. Cotter (ed.) Excavations 1986: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 25, No. 46. Dublin. Organisation of Irish Archaeologists.