27612 N9&N10 Waterford:TEMPALTE 12/6/08 17:42 Page 1

N9/N10 KILCULLEN TO WATERFORD SCHEME: N9/N10 KILCULLEN TO WATERFORD SCHEME: WATERFORD TO KNOCKTOPHER, WATERFORD TO KNOCKTOPHER, what we found background County Kilkenny County Kilkenny

in brief: The N9/N10 Waterford to County Council. A total of 54 previously unknown Some of the findings from the scheme: sites dating from the fourth millennium BC to the 1 Knocktopher road project is 19th century AD were uncovered as a result of this work. Post-excavation analysis of the remains 1. Quern-stone the southernmost part of a discovered on these sites is ongoing. Quern-stone found within pit at Scart. (Photo: VJK Ltd) new national road linking Kilcullen to Carlow, This road is built through varied landscapes commencing with the valley of the River Suir in the Kilkenny and Waterford. south. It crosses over the Walsh Mountains between Mullinavat and Ballyhale and then descends into the 2 2. Cremation site The scheme involves the construction of 23.5 km of central lowlands of Kilkenny at Knocktopher. The dual carriageway between the Waterford City Bypass Cremated human bone on the floor of a cist at archaeological investigations have shown a greater and the town of Knocktopher, Co. Kilkenny. Knockmoylan. density and diversity of sites in lowland areas (Photo: VJK Ltd) compared with upland locations. These discoveries are Archaeological works were carried out by Margaret For more information Gowen & Co. Ltd and Valerie J Keeley Ltd (VJK Ltd) enabling archaeologists and historians to build upon between January 2006 and February 2007 on behalf the existing knowledge of man and the environment please contact: of the National Roads Authority and Kilkenny in this part of Ireland. Archaeology Section The most common 3 Bronze Age site type National Roads Authority archaeological 3. Spearhead encountered during St. Martins House An iron spearhead found during excavation of the excavations was Waterloo Road, Dublin 4 the multi-period site at Baysrath. the fulacht (Photo: VJK Ltd) fiadh/burnt mound, Te l : +353 1 660 2511 DISCOVERIES of which eight were Fax: +353 1 668 0009 excavated on the Email: [email protected] scheme. Here an Web: www.nra.ie archaeologist © Ordnance Survey Ireland & Government of Ireland permit number EN0045206. 4 excavates a trough at Ballykeoghan. 4. Reaping hook (Photo: NRA) An iron reaping hook was discovered at front cover images Baysrath. LEFT: Archaeologists excavating a skeleton at Baysrath. Due to the nature of the soil, burials were poorly preserved. (Photo: VJK Ltd) (Photo: NRA) RIGHT: The remains of a kiln at Ballykillaboy. (Photo: NRA) MIDDLE: Ringfort and earlier palisade enclosure discovered at Baysrath. (Photo: AirShots Ltd)

Published 2008. 27612 N9&N10 Waterford makeup:TEMPALTE 8/6/08 10:45 Page 2

Grooved Ware. A flint arrowhead, a stone axehead The occupants of the ringfort were not the and a quern-stone were also retrieved. The form of first to settle in this part of Baysrath. these structures and the type of pottery associated iron age-early medieval Archaeologists discovered that the ringfort neolithic with them suggest that the site may have functioned as was constructed partially upon an earlier kilkenny’s first farmers a centre of ritual activity within the foothills of Tory Hill the craft of metalworking palisade or timber enclosure measuring 40 m in the late Neolithic. Once iron was introduced, about 600 BC, it became a In the past, iron was produced through a number of in diameter. The date of this feature will be While Kilkenny is well known for its upstanding The foundations of two rectangular buildings located 4 necessity for the manufacture and repair of tools, stages commencing with the sourcing of iron ore from determined through radiocarbon analysis. medieval remains, archaeologists excavating in advance m apart were excavated in Earlsrath. They measured weapons and ornaments. Every activity from shoeing a local bogs or wetlands. Once washed, this rough ore Post-holes and pits were excavated in the of the construction of the road, discovered much 13 m in maximum length and 8 m in width and had a horse to building a house soon required the products interior and may have been the remains of evidence of the county’s prehistoric communities. Foundations of two rectangular structures at Earlsrath. was roasted and smelted to reduce impurities, leaving (Photo: VJK Ltd) of the forge. north-west–south-east orientation. The southernmost an iron bloom. The smith took the bloom, heated, buildings. The palisade trench in turn had A number of stone axeheads found on various sites of these structures consisted of a large foundation retrieved from the site, the date of these buildings will hammered and shaped it so that it could be used to been built upon the remains of earlier circular along the scheme, such as at Rahard West and only be confirmed after radiocarbon dating results are trench into which a number of post-holes had been houses that may date to the Bronze Age. Curvilinear enclosures of similar date to the ringfort at Baysrath were make and mend tools and weapons. Early Irish writings found at Earlsrath and Knockmoylan. An archaeologist records the fills Earlsrath, may have been used by the first farmers to cut. An internal foundation trench divided the received. have indicated that smiths were held in esteem within within the ditch of the enclosure at Knockmoylan. (Photo: NRA) clear the woodland and prepare the land for farming. structure into two rooms. As few artefacts were the community. An early Neolithic structure built by these farmers was excavated at Kilkeasy. Trenches forming the Evidence for iron smelting was uncovered at living with the ancestors foundations for a wooden building enclosed an area Circular, late Neolithic structure at Scart. Wooden posts have Ballynamorahan and Baysrath where pits containing The tradition of burial at Baysrath continued outside containing a cremation. Ring-ditches represent a place 2 been placed within the excavated post-holes. (Photo: VJK Ltd) bronze age measuring 30 m . Several pits were found outside the metalworking waste were excavated, while at structure and contained charred seeds, hazelnut shells, life and death the enclosed area around the ringfort, to the north- of burial in the Bronze Age or Iron Age. structures once occupied this location. The circular Ballykillaboy, evidence for both smelting and smithing pottery sherds, flint and a stone axehead. east, where a small, annular ring-ditch encircled a pit structure was defined by nine pits and had a south- An Early Bronze Age cemetery was found at A small number of pits containing cremated bone was encountered. To the south-east of the ring-ditch, Knockmoylan. The burials had been cremated. Two of were excavated at Baysrath, to the west of east-facing porched entrance. Several of the pits archaeologists revealed a single, unburnt An archaeologist excavates a pit containing metalworking excavated contained flint flakes and pottery sherds, them were placed in decorated pottery urns, while Knocktopher. These pits represented just one element residues at Ballynamorahan. (Photo: VJK Ltd) burial. Both ring-ditch and inhumation were including a distinctive type of pottery known as others were found in cists and pits. of a complex multi-period site. Circular slot-trenches also found at this location, signified the remains of in turn enclosed by a larger ring-ditch At Coolmore, token deposits of cremated bone were managing the land roundhouses that may have been inhabited during the found within 24 pits suggesting that burial at this site Farming has long been a key aspect of Irish society ringfort on a slight rise. This ringfort, measuring almost measuring almost 17 m in diameter and Bronze Age. took place in the later Bronze Age. and some of the best-known upstanding 37 m in external diameter, displayed an east-facing with two narrow causeways in its archaeological monuments in the rural landscape are entrance. circumference. An inhumation cemetery of the remains of defended early medieval farmsteads A number of ditches adjacent to the monument 61 grave-cuts extended in a rough arc Foundations of an early Neolithic structure uncovered at known as raths or ringforts. Occasionally, no trace of Kilkeasy. (Photo: VJK Ltd) possibly served as field boundaries, used to define these large monuments exists above the ground outside the eastern and north-eastern working areas, protect crops or keep animals in or surface and they are only discovered in the process of At Scart, on a prominent location with extensive views out. Several grain-drying kilns were excavated to the confines of the larger ring-ditch. The graves archaeological test trenching. The largest site to the south, a large number of pits and post-holes are north of the ringfort, indicating the importance of were, for the most part, unlined and excavated on the road scheme was located in testament to intensive activity in the later Neolithic cereal crops in the local economy. Such kilns were Baysrath. While the townland name reflects the oriented south-west–north-east. period. Examination of the layout of these features used to dry grain after harvesting, making it easier to Ring-ditches at Baysrath with grave cuts in foreground. Site at Scart where a series of pits and post-holes represent An archaeologist prepares to lift the Rectangular cist at Knockmoylan. A cist is Bronze Age urn containing cremated presence of two known ringforts, archaeologists (Photo: AirShots Ltd) suggests that a circular structure and two four-post intensive Neolithic activity. The remains of one of the four-post capstone covering a Bronze Age cist at a stone-lined pit within which burials bone in a cist at Knockmoylan. (Photo: grind, or to ensure that it did not rot in storage. structures is visible in the foreground. (Photo: VJK Ltd) Knockmoylan. (Photo: VJK Ltd) were placed. (Photo: VJK Ltd) VJK Ltd) uncovered evidence for a third, previously unknown