At Templerainy in County Wicklow, the construction of the Arklow bypass brought to light four adjacent pits containing cremated human remains, fragments of flint, and sherds of Beaker pottery, a type of distinctively decorated ceramic associated with a widespread cultural network that spread across Europe in the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. The pits were clustered together, suggesting a deliberate grouping rather than isolated or accidental deposits, which points to some form of organised burial practice at this spot thousands of years ago.

The excavation was carried out by Brendán Ó Riordáin under licence reference 97E0083, as part of the archaeological work necessitated by the road scheme. The Beaker pottery recovered from the pits is significant as a dating indicator. Beaker ware, named for its characteristic drinking-vessel shape, appears across Britain and Ireland roughly between 2500 and 1700 BC, placing these burials at the cusp of the Bronze Age. Cremation was one of the burial rites practised during this period, and the combination of burned bone, worked flint, and Beaker sherds in a pit context is well attested at sites of this era elsewhere in Ireland, though each find assemblage carries its own character. Ó Riordáin published the findings in 1999.