What is recorded here

Half-buried in Ballybronoge South pasture, a seven-metre penannular ditch held fourteen cremations and a copper spiral ring, marking an Iron Age place of memory rather than ordinary living. Its charcoal-rich silt and hidden bank suggest people returned there to release what fire had changed, then let the ditch take it back. The road works exposed the site before erasing its shape, leaving only a quiet gap where human attention once gathered.

Situated in pasture. An isolated hearth (LI021-185----) lies 70m to SE. Monument identified in 1999 as a possible prehistoric settlement during monitoring of topsoil-stripping on the N20/N21 Adare to Annacotty Road Improvement Scheme (Eogan and Finn 2000, 158-9). It was excavated (License No. 99E0324) by James Eogan and Damian Finn and was described as a penannular-shaped ring-ditch (overall diam. 7m) with the ditch (max. D 0.5m) having a U-shaped profile. The pattern of silting in the ditch may suggest that there was an external bank. The main fill of the ditch was a charcoal-rich silt in which fourteen token deposits of cremated human bone were found (Eogan and Finn 1999, 1). One of the deposits contained a copper-alloy spiral ring (NMI Reg. No. 99E0324:5:29 & 30) and part of a decorated bone (NMI Reg. No. 99E0324:5:2) that is similar stylistically to a gaming-piece found in a cremation under a barrow at Cush, Co. Limerick (ibid). These artefacts suggest an Iron Age date for the filling of the ditch and the deposition of the cremations. Monument is not visible on Digital Globe orthophotos taken 2011-13 or on Google Earth orthoimages taken 28/06/2018. See attached Google Earth orthoimage. Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 6 August 2020

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