Cóilín Ó Drisceoil - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
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Papers by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil
Carloviana, 2024
Account of a famine era mass burial ground discovered and recorded at the former Carlow Union Wor... more Account of a famine era mass burial ground discovered and recorded at the former Carlow Union Workhouse.
Heritage Audit of the River Nore
Built, natural and cultural heritage audit of the River Nore in Co Kilkenny, undertaken on behalf... more Built, natural and cultural heritage audit of the River Nore in Co Kilkenny, undertaken on behalf of Kilkenny County Council Heritage Office.
Materialising Power The Archaeology of the Black Pig's Dyke, County Monaghan, 2021
In 1982 a section of the prehistoric linear earthwork known in folklore and antiquarian speculati... more In 1982 a section of the prehistoric linear earthwork known in folklore and antiquarian speculation as the Black Pig's Dyke was excavated at Aghareagh West, Co. Monaghan. Surviving today as a visible substantial bivallate earthwork, it runs intermittently west-east for around 10km in southwest County Monaghan, between the Finn River, the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, to just beyond the Bunnoe River. The origin of the name of the monument can be traced to a folk-tale that describes how the earthworks were torn into the Monaghan landscape by the angry marauding of a giant mystical schoolteacher-turned-pig. The Monaghan Black Pig's Dyke is one of twelve linear earthworks that are located in the area of the modern Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border and which in the early twentieth century were conflated into the 'ancient boundary fortification of Uladh [modern Ulster]', also known as the Black Pig's Dyke. Prior to the 1982 excavation the monument was undated but radiocarbon dates arising from the excavation demonstrated that it was broadly an Iron Age construction that pre-dated any frontier works of the Roman period, a scenario that had also been demonstrated around the same time by the scientific dating to the first century BC of sections of the massive earthworks of the Dorsey, Co. Armagh, 50km northeast of the Black Pig's Dyke. New radiocarbon dating of charcoal samples from the original excavation has considerably refined its Iron Age chronology and has also, unexpectedly, placed its genesis, at least in the section excavated, in the early to middle Bronze Age. In addition, reassessment of the site's stratigraphic record and fresh palaeobotanical analysis of samples from the excavations, geophysical surveys and a broader research programme on the linear earthworks of the region have altered our understanding of the chronology, archaeological setting and interpretation of this monument and of Irish linear earthworks in general, all of which warrants publication of this book.
Emania, Bulletin of the Navan Research Group (co-author Aidan Walsh), 2018
This paper presents a suite of new radiocarbon dates from the bivallate linear earthwork known as... more This paper presents a suite of new radiocarbon dates from the bivallate linear earthwork known as the
‘Worm Ditch’ / ‘Black Pig’s Race’, County Monaghan. The dates, obtained from charcoal samples recovered during Aidan Walsh’s 1982 excavations at Aghareagh West and Aghnaskew, suggest that the south bank was constructed in the Middle Bronze Age, 1420–1270 cal BC, and the remainder in the Iron Age, probably
between 220–160 cal BC.
More maps and texts: sources and the Irish Historic Towns Atlas, Royal Irish Academy., 2018
Presents a comparative discussion of a cohort of towns that transformed from Gaelic church settle... more Presents a comparative discussion of a cohort of towns that transformed from Gaelic church settlements to Anglo-Norman towns, using the Irish Historic Towns Atlas series of fasicules.
‘Archaeological excavation of a Late Neolithic Grooved Ware settlement at Balgatheran, County Louth’, County Louth Archaeological Journal 27, 2010
Describes excavation of a Grooved Ware Late Neolithic settlement near the Boyne Valley.
M. Stanely (ed), Above and Below, The Archaeology of Roads and Light Rail, Wordwell, Bray, 31-46., 2016
Summarises the current state of knowledge about Roman and Roman-influenced objects and archaeolog... more Summarises the current state of knowledge about Roman and Roman-influenced objects and archaeological sites in Co Kilkenny. Also presents results of geophysical surveys that were conducted at two of Kilkenny's key Roman sites.
Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies Volume XX, 2017
The mid-eighteenth-century granary known as the Wonderful Barn, 1.8km north-east of Castletown H... more The mid-eighteenth-century granary known as the Wonderful Barn, 1.8km north-east of Castletown House, Co. Kildare, has been well researched by scholars and is widely celebrated for its idiosyncratic 'corkscrew' architecture. By way of contrast, the designed landscape that surrounds the Wonderful Barn and Barn Hall has been largely overlooked. This is undeserved, for the Wonderful Barn forms just one element in this farm complex, which is in many ways as innovative and modernising as the barn. This paper draws on archaeological excavations to recreate the mid-eighteenth-century layout of Barn Hall, its farm buildings and walled garden, and also highlights the probable role of the gentleman farmer Joseph Cooper.
Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society, 2019
Excavations and surveys at the mid 18th century granary known as the Wonderful Barn, near Leixlip... more Excavations and surveys at the mid 18th century granary known as the Wonderful Barn, near Leixlip, Co Kildare are described.
Old Kilkenny Review, vol. 70 (2018), 2018
Excavations in 2018 at the rear of the former ‘Avalon Inn’, High Street, Castlecomer, uncovered t... more Excavations in 2018 at the rear of the former ‘Avalon Inn’, High Street, Castlecomer, uncovered the north-east bastion of a large fort which was probably constructed as a government fortress in the run-up to the 1641 Rebellion. The fort was one of a series built to defend the vital
road link between Dublin and Kilkenny and it was besieged by the Confederate forces in 1641-2. Castlecomer Fort appears to have been a relatively shortlived stronghold and whilst it was probably reoccupied c. 1653 by an English garrison and perhaps again in 1680, there is no indication that it continued to function as a fort after c. 1700. The paper describes the archaeological excavations and places the fort in its broader historical context.
Carloviana, 2024
Account of a famine era mass burial ground discovered and recorded at the former Carlow Union Wor... more Account of a famine era mass burial ground discovered and recorded at the former Carlow Union Workhouse.
Heritage Audit of the River Nore
Built, natural and cultural heritage audit of the River Nore in Co Kilkenny, undertaken on behalf... more Built, natural and cultural heritage audit of the River Nore in Co Kilkenny, undertaken on behalf of Kilkenny County Council Heritage Office.
Materialising Power The Archaeology of the Black Pig's Dyke, County Monaghan, 2021
In 1982 a section of the prehistoric linear earthwork known in folklore and antiquarian speculati... more In 1982 a section of the prehistoric linear earthwork known in folklore and antiquarian speculation as the Black Pig's Dyke was excavated at Aghareagh West, Co. Monaghan. Surviving today as a visible substantial bivallate earthwork, it runs intermittently west-east for around 10km in southwest County Monaghan, between the Finn River, the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, to just beyond the Bunnoe River. The origin of the name of the monument can be traced to a folk-tale that describes how the earthworks were torn into the Monaghan landscape by the angry marauding of a giant mystical schoolteacher-turned-pig. The Monaghan Black Pig's Dyke is one of twelve linear earthworks that are located in the area of the modern Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland border and which in the early twentieth century were conflated into the 'ancient boundary fortification of Uladh [modern Ulster]', also known as the Black Pig's Dyke. Prior to the 1982 excavation the monument was undated but radiocarbon dates arising from the excavation demonstrated that it was broadly an Iron Age construction that pre-dated any frontier works of the Roman period, a scenario that had also been demonstrated around the same time by the scientific dating to the first century BC of sections of the massive earthworks of the Dorsey, Co. Armagh, 50km northeast of the Black Pig's Dyke. New radiocarbon dating of charcoal samples from the original excavation has considerably refined its Iron Age chronology and has also, unexpectedly, placed its genesis, at least in the section excavated, in the early to middle Bronze Age. In addition, reassessment of the site's stratigraphic record and fresh palaeobotanical analysis of samples from the excavations, geophysical surveys and a broader research programme on the linear earthworks of the region have altered our understanding of the chronology, archaeological setting and interpretation of this monument and of Irish linear earthworks in general, all of which warrants publication of this book.
Emania, Bulletin of the Navan Research Group (co-author Aidan Walsh), 2018
This paper presents a suite of new radiocarbon dates from the bivallate linear earthwork known as... more This paper presents a suite of new radiocarbon dates from the bivallate linear earthwork known as the
‘Worm Ditch’ / ‘Black Pig’s Race’, County Monaghan. The dates, obtained from charcoal samples recovered during Aidan Walsh’s 1982 excavations at Aghareagh West and Aghnaskew, suggest that the south bank was constructed in the Middle Bronze Age, 1420–1270 cal BC, and the remainder in the Iron Age, probably
between 220–160 cal BC.
More maps and texts: sources and the Irish Historic Towns Atlas, Royal Irish Academy., 2018
Presents a comparative discussion of a cohort of towns that transformed from Gaelic church settle... more Presents a comparative discussion of a cohort of towns that transformed from Gaelic church settlements to Anglo-Norman towns, using the Irish Historic Towns Atlas series of fasicules.
‘Archaeological excavation of a Late Neolithic Grooved Ware settlement at Balgatheran, County Louth’, County Louth Archaeological Journal 27, 2010
Describes excavation of a Grooved Ware Late Neolithic settlement near the Boyne Valley.
M. Stanely (ed), Above and Below, The Archaeology of Roads and Light Rail, Wordwell, Bray, 31-46., 2016
Summarises the current state of knowledge about Roman and Roman-influenced objects and archaeolog... more Summarises the current state of knowledge about Roman and Roman-influenced objects and archaeological sites in Co Kilkenny. Also presents results of geophysical surveys that were conducted at two of Kilkenny's key Roman sites.
Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies Volume XX, 2017
The mid-eighteenth-century granary known as the Wonderful Barn, 1.8km north-east of Castletown H... more The mid-eighteenth-century granary known as the Wonderful Barn, 1.8km north-east of Castletown House, Co. Kildare, has been well researched by scholars and is widely celebrated for its idiosyncratic 'corkscrew' architecture. By way of contrast, the designed landscape that surrounds the Wonderful Barn and Barn Hall has been largely overlooked. This is undeserved, for the Wonderful Barn forms just one element in this farm complex, which is in many ways as innovative and modernising as the barn. This paper draws on archaeological excavations to recreate the mid-eighteenth-century layout of Barn Hall, its farm buildings and walled garden, and also highlights the probable role of the gentleman farmer Joseph Cooper.
Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society, 2019
Excavations and surveys at the mid 18th century granary known as the Wonderful Barn, near Leixlip... more Excavations and surveys at the mid 18th century granary known as the Wonderful Barn, near Leixlip, Co Kildare are described.
Old Kilkenny Review, vol. 70 (2018), 2018
Excavations in 2018 at the rear of the former ‘Avalon Inn’, High Street, Castlecomer, uncovered t... more Excavations in 2018 at the rear of the former ‘Avalon Inn’, High Street, Castlecomer, uncovered the north-east bastion of a large fort which was probably constructed as a government fortress in the run-up to the 1641 Rebellion. The fort was one of a series built to defend the vital
road link between Dublin and Kilkenny and it was besieged by the Confederate forces in 1641-2. Castlecomer Fort appears to have been a relatively shortlived stronghold and whilst it was probably reoccupied c. 1653 by an English garrison and perhaps again in 1680, there is no indication that it continued to function as a fort after c. 1700. The paper describes the archaeological excavations and places the fort in its broader historical context.
Oxbow Books
A previously-unknown suburb of the medieval town of Kilkenny, situated 200m outside the town wall... more A previously-unknown suburb of the medieval town of Kilkenny, situated 200m outside the town wall on an area of former commonage next to the Fair Green, was documented by pre-development archaeological excavations at Highhays. Foremost amongst the discoveries made was a relatively well-preserved pottery production centre that comprised the remains of a pottery kiln alongside workshops and stores, extraction-pits, waster-pits, a drying-kiln, a clay-store and fuel-stands. Adjacent the pottery site was the vestiges of a contemporary bake-yard containing a corn-drying kiln and oven.The final firing of the pottery kiln occurred, based on the results of archaeomagnetic dating, probably around AD 1336. Ceramic production at Highhays appears to have been quite short-lived, with manufacturing taking place for, at most, around two-three generations between c. 1300-1350. Its products, now classified as ‘Highhays ware’, included hand-built and wheel-made round-bodied, pear-shaped and possibly baluster glazed jugs, globular hand-built and wheel-thrown jars and cooking pots, money boxes and ridge-tiles. A distinctive product of the kiln was high-quality, fine, reduced white and greyware wheel-thrown jugs that were modelled on the French Saintonge and Bristol Redcliffe ceramic traditions. Their manufature required a particular form of raw clay that Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometry (ICPS) and petrological analysis indicates was sourced at some distance from the pottery site in north Kilkenny. Presumably because it was considered a high-quality product, Highhays ware is distributed extensively in counties Kilkenny and Wexford, which is uncharacteristic in comparison to most other types of pottery produced in medieval Ireland. The Highhays excavation, therefore, contributes to furthering our understanding of the technology, consumption, chronology and marketing of pottery in medieval Ireland, and because it is one of the few to have taken place in the suburb of a medieval town in this country, it adds new information on how these areas were configured and used, as well as the timing of their origins and decline.
https://www.oxbowbooks.com/9781789258530/highhays-kilkenny/