What is recorded here

Under a new factory in Tralee, four ancient pits waited beneath the topsoil. One pit wore a collar of reused grinding stones, as if someone had built a small chamber for forgetting. The others lay shallow and bare, scattering dark soil across the ground like abandoned thoughts. Together they suggest that people lived, discarded and remembered along this valley long before roads or walls arrived.

'Monitoring of all ground disturbance aspects of a factory site in the Monavalley Industrial Estate, in the northern part of Tralee town, was undertaken to comply with a planning condition. An area of archaeological stratigraphy was noted during topsoil-stripping and was subsequently excavated. Four pits were excavated. One of the pits, measuring 1.6m north-south by 0.9m and 0.98m deep, was stone-lined on the south-east side. A saddle quern and a rubbing stone had been reused to line the pit. Iron slag was recovered from the upper fill. A second large pit was found 1m to the south-west; it measured 3.1m north-south by 2.7m and 0.8m deep. Two small pits were found to the south and east. They measured 0.8m north-south by 0.76m by 0.2m deep and 0.75m north-south by 0.7m by 0.15m deep. The material recovered from one of the large pits would suggest that they are prehistoric in date' (Kiely 2000, 116-7). Description from ‘The Prehistoric Settlement of the Lee Valley, Tralee, Co. Kerry; A Landscape Perspective’ by Michael Connolly. PhD Thesis UCC 2008 Pit no. C22.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.