EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Kilkenny
Dunbell Big (5), Co. Kilkenny
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Ref: S55705210 (25570/15210)
SMR No: KK024-01?--
Excavation Licence: E000571
Excavation Duration/Year: September – November 1990.
Site Director: B. Cassidy (Archaeological Development Services)
Dunbell Big (5) is one of a cluster of enclosures found in this townland. In 1850 the land
owner began quarrying the enclosure for fertilizer, and this resulted in a number of surveys
and excavations of the sites by local antiquarians. As was typical of such digs, the excavators
were largely interested in material culture remains, rather than structural or stratigraphical
features. Finds from these excavations included bronze ring pins; an iron bell; silvered bronze
wire; and lignite bracelets.
By the time of the excavation in 1990, Dunbell Big (5) had been completely levelled, however
antiquarian reports that it may have contained a souterrain meant that some features may
have survived. The site was now threatened by the expansion of a local limestone quarry.
An oval ditch was uncovered during these excavations, with a maximum external diameter of
50m. The upper width of the ditch was 4m and it survived to a depth of 2m. The only finds
recovered from the ditch in the earlier excavation were animal bones, and one sherd of
coarse pottery. When the ditch was further excavated later in 1990, however an iron barrellock
key was recovered from the lower fill of the ditch.
Further excavation in the interior of the site recovered evidence for a square wicker-walled
house, with central hearth and internal roof supports. A 6m roundhouse, also of wickerwalled
construction, was identified south of the square house (Fig. 177). This structure had a
small porch (indicated by four postholes), and the door-step into the house had survived in
situ. A third structure, described as being ‘slightly horse-shoe-shaped’, was also identified in
the late-1990 excavations. The floor of this structure was full of iron slag, and it seems highly
probable that this was a workshop. A furnace was also located within the interior of the
enclosure.
In the course of excavation a number of Bronze Age burials were also found underlying the
early medieval structures and occupation layers.
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