Kiln — corn-drying in Busherstown

Phase 2 excavation carried out by Tori McMorran for Eachtra Archaeological Projects in 2007 under licence No. E3661 along 17.1km (Contract 1) of the 35km N7 Castletown to Nenagh (Derrinsallagh to Ballintotty) national road scheme were commissioned by Laois County Council and the National Roads Authority. Contract 1 comprises the western half of the scheme and runs from Clashnevin to Castelroan, passing along the Tipperary North and Offaly county border regions. The excavation revealed a complex multi-period site. The site is located at around 140m OD overlooking a wide area of marshy ground to the north-east and east. Ground level drops sharply to the north to a small but fast-flowing stream. One of the earliest uses of this site was as a centre of cereal processing, including cereal drying and storage. A total of fifteen earth-cut, unlined possible figure-of-eight- or dumbbell-shaped kilns (OF047-017006-/020-) were discovered. These kilns all contain evidence for a deeper firing chamber and a drying chamber. Some kilns appeared to have been enclosed or partly enclosed by or associated with structural remains. The large ‘blank’ areas on site may represent spaces set aside for other activities associated with cereal processing. The second phase of activity was the enclosing of certain areas of the site through the construction of deep, wide ditches. It is unclear at this point whether this was to enclose the cereal-processing centre or whether this activity had already ended. It is clear that the construction of the ditches did not always respect the location of the kilns, with many of these being truncated at this time. Several structures which are present within the interior of this enclosed area may relate to this time. At least one of these truncates a kiln. No kiln was discovered within the central area of the enclosure or outside the enclosed area, although a small number of those truncated by the enclosing ditches were on the external edge of the truncating ditch. In this regard there does appear to be some form of relationship between the enclosing of the area and the locations of the kilns. A late phase of activity on site includes the construction of a massive ditch enclosing a subrectangular area, a moated site (OF047-017001-) (Bennett 2010, 396). Compiled by Caimin O'Brien Date of upload/revision : 08 November 2011