What is recorded here

Ballyconra is a hidden row of conjoined plots in flat Kilkenny pasture, marked only by faint earthworks beside Barney church. The Down Survey terrier for 1655-6 already named a castle, weare, cabins and old church there, while geophysics now resolves eleven or twelve western plots and a curving eastern tail. People may have lived along that line for centuries, tending fields and leaving their names nowhere but the shape of the ground.

In flat undulating lowland, in pasture. A row settlement identified by geophysics (Nicholls 2017 unpublished Geophysical report; Deery and Crowley 2017 unpublished EIS) carried out in advance of a proposed solar farm. Located c. 250m N of Barney church (KK009-013001-) and graveyard (KK009-013007-) and c. 800m WSW of Ballyconra castle (KK004-033----). The parish terrier accompanying the Down Survey maps (1655-6) notes that in Ballyconra townland there was, ‘a castle partly in repaire, a weare and cabins with an old church’ (http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/down-survey-maps.php#bm=Galmoy&c=Kilkenny&p=Agharny). The row (L c. 500m), fronting onto a street, consists of a series of conjoined rectangular plots (dims. c. 40m N-S; c. 15-20m E-W), aligned roughly N-S, with a house at the S end of most, if not all plots. The W end of the row (L c. 200m) consists of 11-12 plots of more or less equal proportion, while the E end has less clearly defined plots. The row is aligned roughly E-W, though the E end curves upwards towards the N. There are a number of field boundaries running roughly northward beyond the plot boundaries. The most westerly of these bisects a possible earlier enclosure (KK004-054----), which is just one of a number of enclosures (KK004-043----; KK004-044----; KK004-045----; KK004-047----; KK004-048----; KK004-049----; KK004-050----; KK004-051----; KK004-052- and KK004-053----) which were identified in the vicinity by geophysics. The settlement is not visible at ground level, however, earthworks (KK009-013005-), probably related to this settlement, are visible in the adjoining field to the S, surrounding the church and graveyard. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 September 2018

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