Ring-ditch

The National Monuments Service's description

Located at what was probably the crest of an E-facing slope overlooking the valley of the River Liffey before it was flooded and turned into the Pollaphuca reservoir. The water of the reservoir has eroded away the topsoil and a lot of the subsoil on a fairly level plateau. Judging by the little cliff around the normal edge of the full reservoir about 30-40cm of subsoil has been removed at the edge of the shore where wave action would perhaps erode more of the soil, but the topsoil and some amount of subsoil has been removed from the extensive ground exposed now at the SE edge of Burgage More townland. Some furrows running NE-SW and placed c. 2.5m apart are also visible. The cursus (WI005-124----) is in full view at the top of a hill to the E. A second ring-ditch (WI005-128----) is c. 25m to the N (340 degrees magnetic).
This ring-ditch is slightly larger than the northern one and a bit more complex. Three internal pits were identified as well as the bottom of a furrow that runs 20-200 degrees (magnetic) through the monument near its E edge and another one on the same alignment is just NW of the site. This must mean that not much of the subsoil has been removed. The ring-ditch has internal dims of 5m WNW-ESE; 4.95m NNE-SSW; ext. dims 5.35m WNW-ESE; 5.57m NNE-SSW. The ditch is between 26cm and 35cm wide. There is a break in the ditch (Wth 0.5m) at NW, and where the furrow runs over the monument and crosses the ditch at SW and NE the ditch could not be made out, particularly at NE where there is a gap of 1.75m. The gap at NW is too small to be an official opening, and is probably where the ditch is so shallow that it has eroded away. The gap at NE is too wide to be that of a hut-site so the feature is probably a barrow.
Three small pits were identified in the interior, although none was at the centre. The pits have diameters of 20-25cm and are widely spaced in relation to each other but within 1m of the ditch. They contain charcoal and are probably the bases of cremation burials rather than post-holes.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by Michael Moore

Date of upload: 4 October 2018