EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Kilkenny
Dunbell Big (6), Co. Kilkenny
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure.
Grid Ref: S55705210 (25570/15210)
SMR No: KK024-01?--
Excavation Licence: E000108
Excavation Duration/Year: 1972.
Site Director: C. Foley (National Monuments Branch, Office of Public Works)
Dunbell Big (6) 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.
Prior to excavation, Dunbell Big (6) was only visible as a faint embankment. The site was
excavated due to the encroachment of a neighbouring quarry. Trial excavations to locate the
original ditches identified an enclosure with an internal diameter of 56m. The eastern ditch
cutting was V-shaped - 5m wide at the top, and 2m deep. Two amber beads, two fragments
of lignite bracelet, and a bone-pin were found in occupation debris in the top 0.3m of this.
The western ditch cutting was slightly shallower, and was sealed by a habitation layer
containing five sherds of thirteenth-century pottery.
Excavations in the interior of the enclosure revealed the presence of a roundhouse, indicating
by arcs of postholes, which was subsequently replaced by a structure of indeterminate shape,
associated with a central hearth. A bone awl and iron slag were recovered from these
structures. Other finds from the site include a number of iron objects and a fragment of a
blue-glass bead.
(No plans were available for this site).
Reference:
Foley, C. 1972. Excavation of a ringfort at Dunbell Big, Co. Kilkenny. OPW report.
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