Archaeological excavations on the N69 Listowel Bypass

In the summer of 2019 archaeologists from Archaeological Management Solutions investigated the route of the N69 Listowel Bypass on behalf of Kerry County Council prior to the commencement of road construction. This is a process that happens in advance of construction of all national road projects in Ireland. The archaeological excavations were overseen by archaeologists from Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and were carried out in accordance with Ministerial Directions issued by the National Monuments Service of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

The excavations investigated a number of interesting archaeological sites from the prehistoric and historic eras. This video documents the excavation of prehistoric fulachtaí fia, also known as burnt mounds, in Coolnaleen and Garryantanvalley. Fulachtaí fia are monuments where heated stones were used to boil water in troughs dug into the ground, they generally date to the Bronze Age (2200–700 BC). It is believed that the boiling water produced could have been used for a variety of purposes, including cooking and washing. At Coolnaleen a series of large pits were found, the presence of the remains of a layer of charcoal in the base of the pits has led the archaeologists to deduce that this was a site where charcoal was produced, probably in the early medieval period (AD 400–1169). Some large worked oak timbers were found preserved in a layer of peat in a marshy area at Gortcurreen. It seems that they came from the demolition of a building somewhere else. Tree-ring dating will be used to find out when the trees that they were made from were cut down, they may date from the medieval period (AD 400–1700).

Now that the excavations are completed the archaeological team is hard at work assessing the artefacts and ecofacts (organic remains such as wood, charcoal, seeds and pollen) and preparing reports. This post-excavation phase will continue for some time and will include scientific analysis and dating of the excavated material. Once this work is completed final excavation reports for each site will be compiled which will be uploaded to the TII Digital Heritage Collections (https://repository.dri.ie/catalog/v69...) and the results of the excavations and the post-excavation analyses will be summarised in a publication.


The video was produced by James McCarthy of Digimack Video Productions on behalf of Kerry County Council with funding provided by TII.