What is recorded here

Annette Quinn cut seven trenches through Kilmallock soil beside the medieval wall, expecting only clean ground for six new houses. Instead the spoons struck shallow pits and linear cuts buried beneath boulder clay, shapes likely born of ancient farming rather than grand design. One chamber dropped deeper than the others, releasing a single shattered piece of medieval pottery into the modern light. The wall still stands nearby, watching the field where human hands keep digging up their own forgotten patience.

Testing of a proposed development site by Annette Quinn under licence No. 05E1373 at Castlecourt, Sarsfield Street, Kilmallock, was carried out as part of a pre-planning assessment. The proposed development consisted of the construction of six dwelling houses on a greenfield site adjacent to and within the standing medieval town wall. Seven trenches were excavated on the site within the footprint of the proposed buildings. These revealed the presence of a number of potential archaeological features within the site. The features were encountered at depths ranging between 0.7-1.4m below present ground level and all appeared to cut the natural boulder clay. They generally consisted of linear trenches and shallow pits and are likely to relate to agricultural activity on the site. A lack of datable finds from the majority of the features uncovered makes it difficult to assign them to any particular period, although one sherd of medieval pottery was recovered from the upper levels of F12, a large linear feature. Excavation of an adjacent site at the rear of Shears Street by Meriel McClatchie in 2000 revealed similar features dating to the medieval and post-medieval period (Excavations 2000, No. 587, 00E0305). (www.excavations.ie)

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