EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Kilkenny
Loughboy, Co. Kilkenny
Early Medieval Settlement-Cemetery.
Grid Ref: S51445382 (25144/15382)
SMR No: KK019-040; KK019-041
Excavation Licence: 98E0219
Excavation Duration/Year: November 1998 – 1999.
Site Directors: E. Cotter (Freelance)
Excavations were undertaken on the site of two circular enclosures recorded in the early
editions of the Ordnance Survey maps, but no longer visible on the ground. The sites were
located on the top of two small knolls. Excavation revealed little evidence for the enclosure
KK019-041, and work was focused on KK019-040, although it also turned out to have been
substantially destroyed by agricultural improvements in the 1930s.
Top-soil stripping here uncovered a sub-rectangular enclosure (41m by 35m), which was later
expanded by the addition of a secondary ditch, thus enclosing an oval-shaped area of 52m by
39m (Fig. 180). Two charcoal spreads were uncovered in the interior of the site, from which
fragments of iron slag and a fragment of a bone comb were found. An ironworking hearth
was also located within the interior, from which 35 pieces of iron slag was recovered.
A cemetery of at least 20 individuals was discovered in the south-east of the interior. The
animal bones recovered from the ditch were dominated by cattle (370 fragments). Sheep (64
fragments) and pig (46 fragments) were also present, as was dog (4 fragments) and red deer
(1 fragment).
Fig. 179: Plan of enclosure KK019-040 at Loughboy, Co. Kilkenny (after Cotter 1999).
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