Moated site, Kilferagh, Co. Kilkenny

Moated site, Kilferagh, Co. Kilkenny

In the gently rolling countryside of County Kilkenny, about 1.1 kilometres west of the River Nore, archaeological excavations during the Cork-Dublin gas pipeline construction in the early 1980s revealed a fascinating glimpse into medieval rural life.

Moated site, Kilferagh, Co. Kilkenny

The site at Kilferagh yielded the remains of what appears to have been an enclosed manorial farmstead, complete with defensive ditches and various agricultural structures dating to the late 13th or early 14th century.

The excavation, covering an area roughly 10 to 12 metres north-south by 25 metres east-west, uncovered two parallel ditches running in a north-northwest to south-southeast direction. The western ditch, the more substantial of the two at 2.4 metres wide and 1.1 metres deep, curved slightly northward and contained animal bones and a large ceramic platter from the period. Just 3.9 metres west of this ditch sat a corn-drying kiln with its associated yard and hearth, whilst nearby stone foundations suggested the presence of a house and what might have been a barn. The proximity of these structures to the inner ditch led archaeologists to interpret it as the fosse, or defensive ditch, of a moated site; a type of fortified farmstead common amongst the Anglo-Norman settlers of medieval Ireland.



The pottery sherds scattered throughout the site tell a story of occupation spanning perhaps a century, with the settlement apparently abandoned and deliberately backfilled by the late 14th or early 15th century. This timing coincides with broader upheavals in medieval Ireland, including the Bruce Invasion, the Black Death, and the general contraction of Anglo-Norman settlement known as the Gaelic Resurgence. Today, the site has returned to tillage, its medieval past hidden beneath the soil, known only through the careful work of archaeologists who briefly brought this lost farmstead back to light.

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Hurley, M.F. 1987 Kilferagh, Co. Kilkenny. In Cleary, R.M., Hurley, M.F. and Twohig, E.A.(eds), Excavations on the Cork-Dublin gas pipeline (1981-2), 88-100. Cork. Department of Archaeology, University College Cork.
Kilferagh, Co. Kilkenny
52.61718811, -7.21125894
52.61718811,-7.21125894
Kilferagh 
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