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From Milltown's first farmers to landed gentry
The archaeology of the N70 Kilderry Bends Road Improvement Scheme in County Kerry
Finding the archaeology
Various methods of archaeological investigation are undertaken in advance of the construction of all national road schemes in Ireland. This work is designed in consultation with TII Project Archaeologists to minimise the impact of the development on known archaeology. For the N70, archaeologists used geophysical surveys, test excavations, metal detection and monitoring of groundworks at various places along the route to help them identify new archaeological sites. All of this work assists archaeologists to create strategies to deal with the impact a development will have on the archaeological and cultural heritage of an area before any construction begins.
Known sites and new discoveries
Eleven archaeological sites were excavated in advance of the construction of the N70 Kilderry Bends Road Improvement scheme. Nine of these were not known about before this work commenced, while of the remaining two sites, one (Kilcolman 4) was field boundaries depicted on 19th-century Ordnance Survey mapping and the other had been recorded by the Archaeological Survey of Ireland as a ringfort - rath (KE047-054). As mentioned, this site is known locally as Lissaniska, or Lios an Uisce, meaning fort of the water.
Over four months, these sites were meticulously excavated and recorded by a team of ACSU archaeologists. The highlights from across these eleven sites are presented here.
To find out more about each site click the dots on the map and use ‘zoom to’ to see the exact location.
N70 Archaeology
Neolithic pit-digging
Prehistoric water-boiling
Early medieval Lissaniska
Godfrey Estate
Many features exposed during these excavations relate to a time when the Godfreys of Milltown owned these lands. In 1667, under the Cromwellian settlement of Ireland, over 7,000 acres in County Kerry were granted to Major John Godfrey of Kent. The resulting Godfrey estate included Kilcolman Demesne, and possibly Abbeylands to the east, and remained in the family until the 1960s. The area included a large deer park with an enclosing wall and Lissaniska Lodge, which was probably used for small hunting parties or by the park keeper. The Godfrey Estate Papers are held by the Muckross House Research Library
The principal residence was referred to as Bushfield House but it was destroyed by fire in the 1770s. A new residence was built up around a nearby tower house with much renovation to the house and estate taking place in the early 19th century under Sir John Godfrey. It was at this time that the summer residence in Fort Agnes was constructed and from c. 1820 onwards Bushfield was renamed Kilcolman Abbey.
Stone-lined ditch forming avenue leading to Lissaniska Lodge
Two roughly parallel ditches at Kilcolman 1, set approximately 2.8 metres apart, were located in an area depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) 6-inch map of 1846 (surveyed 1840) as an avenue leading to Lissaniska Lodge from the south. A single course of stone along one ditch may have been the remains of a stone-facing that originally extended along the tree-lined banks defining the avenue. From Lissaniska Lodge this avenue extended southwards to the townland boundary with Knockagarrane, where the deer park wall probably originally existed.
This avenue also continued westwards, some sections of which are depicted on the 6-inch map of 1846 and the 25-inch map of 1894 (surveyed 1893) as a planted tree-belt defining an avenue that would have extended along the inside of the deer park wall. Sections of a ditch forming this avenue were exposed at Kilcolman 2, 3 and 4.
Ditches overlaying 1st edition Ordnance Survey (OS) 6-inch map, surveyed 1840
Scientific analysis
ACSU and TII are committed to open access to these site reports, meaning that when all work is completed everyone can see the results from the N70 excavations through the TII Digital Heritage Collections.