What is recorded here

The Arcon Mines stripped the soil in 1999 to reveal a broad carpet of fire-shattered stone and an oval trough cut for boiling water. Two rows of stake holes at one end suggest a canopy sheltered the heat, perhaps marking a kitchen where people gathered before the land changed. The stones still hold the shape of that lost activity, waiting for imagination to complete the scene.

Identified during the monitoring of topsoil-stripping and associated plant excavations being carried out at the Arcon Mines, Galmoy, Co. Kilkenny, between November 1999 and March 2000. Initially identified as a large spread (dims. c. 10m N-S; c. 8m E-W) of blackened and fire-shattered stone immediately beneath the topsoil (Coughlan 2002, 172-3). An elongated oval trough (dims. 2.7m x 1.56m; D 0.62m), orientated NE-SW, was located fairly centrally within the spread, however, at the SW end the trough was only 0.3m deep, creating a metre wide ledge at this end. At the SW end of the trough there were two parallel lines of three stake-holes, orientated NE-SW. Two of these stake-holes were located at the base of the deeper cut, with the other four at the base of the shallow ledge. These may have supported some type of canopy. (Coughlan 2002, 172-3) Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 9 May 2016

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