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In June 1886, in New Ross, a port town on the boundary between Co. Wexford and Co. Kilkenny in south-east Ireland, the priest Canon John Kirwan received a most unusual gift from his parishioners: a dugout boat. The local newspaper recounted that fishermen had pulled the vessel from the River Barrow, and that it had been discovered near the find-place of two allegedly Hadrianic Roman bronze coins – something, the correspondent concluded, that demonstrated the antiquity of human settlement at New Ross, long before William Marshal and Isabella de Clare founded the town in the early 1200s. Sadly, neither coins nor dugout were properly documented or preserved, and this is the only information we have about them.
This episode highlights a number of issues relevant to understanding the history and archaeology of this part of Ireland. The majority of archaeological finds in the region have been accidental discoveries made in the course of activities like farming, fishing, construction, or quarrying – and the absence of local museums or nearby universities meant that most of these finds were poorly recorded and many were lost. More positively, it also demonstrates the significance of the River Barrow (which – along with the Nore and the Suir, collectively known as the Three Sisters – drains much of south-east Ireland) to the communities who lived along its course for millennia. Sometimes it formed a territorial and physical boundary that was fought over and needed to be crossed. Periodically its waters rose, flooding settlements and destroying crops. As a routeway, it was used by people coming and going from near and far, whether as settlers, traders, invaders, or emigrants. The river has also always been a rich source of food and other natural resources, immortalised by Edmund Spenser, Elizabethan poet, colonial official, and planter, in his epic poem The Faerie Queene as ‘the goodly Barow, which doth hoord/Great heapes of Salmons in his deepe bosome…’.
The river played a key role in the construction of the 14km-long N25 New Ross Bypass, which crosses the Barrow south of the historic town via the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Bridge (the longest bridge on the island of Ireland, at c.900m). The bypass opened in 2020, and, as described in Transport Infrastucture Ireland’s recently published Places for the Living, Places for the Dead (see ‘Further reading’ below, and CA 411), systematic archaeological investigations along its route revealed a wealth of new evidence about the area’s past.
Even during the project’s planning stage, archaeological and historical research testified to the landscape’s potential for such discoveries. The new road was set to run through an area with a known early Neolithic portal tomb, early Bronze Age burials, and a scatter of presumed prehistoric monuments (such as standing stones and burnt mounds), as well as one of the region’s densest concentrations of ringforts (the typical secular Irish early medieval farm settlement), and numerous medieval moated sites. It was not only previously recorded archaeology that was brought to light, however: once planning consent had been secured, archaeologists from Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd excavated more than 2,000 test trenches, totalling 101.9 km, which identified previously undocumented archaeological remains at 35 locations. Three more archaeological sites were revealed through careful monitoring in areas where pre-construction investigations could not be carried out, and these were excavated by Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd. Adding to this picture, analysis of pollen samples provided a palaeoenvironmental context for sites from the Bronze Age to the late medieval periods. What, then, has been learned about this landscape’s long human history?
Hunter-gatherers: making places in the landscape
Our story begins in the Mesolithic period, around 9,000 years ago. The distribution of Mesolithic finds in south-east Ireland shows a distinct focus of activity along river valleys, but these hunter-gatherer communities can only be dimly perceived through the discovery of their stone tools and waste flakes, whether found during field-walking or in secondary contexts on later sites. It is easier to visualise the environment that they inhabited: pollen studies, particularly Dr Kevin Kearney’s analysis of a well-dated core from Lough Cullin, 13km south-west of New Ross, indicates a wooded post-glacial landscape dominated by oaks and elms, beneath which significant numbers of hazel trees grew. At that time, relative sea levels were considerably lower along the south coast, so the Barrow may not have been tidal and the coastline would have been much more distant than its present position.
Tantalising hints of a Mesolithic presence emerged during the bypass excavations: at Stokestown, on a terrace overlooking the Barrow wetlands, a possible early Mesolithic feature had been disturbed by a Bronze Age burial. Meanwhile, in Ryleen, at a site overlooking the Maudlins Stream (a tributary of the Barrow), small curvilinear gullies were found to contain charred hazelnut shells that were radiocarbon dated to the early Mesolithic period, and a large chert blade found in a Neolithic context at the same site may be a reused Mesolithic tool. A short distance upstream, in Arnestown, a distinctive late Mesolithic butt-trimmed flint flake was discovered at a site reused in the Bronze Age.
Such traces may seem ephemeral, but the latest research on the Irish Mesolithic, by Professor Graeme Warren, shows that this range of evidence is typical for the period across much of the island. So, what can we say about the hunter-gatherer communities who first peopled this landscape? Theirs was a persistent presence, though they did not establish permanent settlements. Nonetheless, the locations where they obtained raw materials for their tools, the clearings they made in woodland using stone tools and probably fire, and the riverbank locations where they fished, created the first human places in the landscape.
Neolithic farmers: domesticating the landscape
Around 4,000 BC, new groups arrived up the Barrow, who had a more significant impact on the landscape. By this time, relative sea levels along Ireland’s south coast were rising, and this change would have been experienced far inland along the tidal waters of the Three Sisters, resulting in the formation of wetlands along the Barrow, at Landscape and Stokestown. The Lough Cullin pollen core suggests that the earliest Neolithic communities felled areas of woodland around 6,000 years ago, creating open meadows and cultivating cereal crops for up to 500 years.
At Ryleen, a site on the south-west slopes of Lacken Hill, overlooking the Maudlins Stream, was chosen by a group of early Neolithic farmers to build their new home. The rectangular footprint of a Neolithic house – the first to be found in Co. Wexford – was revealed there during the bypass excavations; measuring c.8.5m long and just over 6m wide, the house was oriented north-west/south-east, with its doorway probably located in the north-west wall, and an internal partition divided the building into two rooms. Its walls were a combination of plank, post, and wattle constructions, and the floor surface was compacted by a lifetime of constant trampling. From these deposits, charcoal, charred hazelnut shell, and lithics were recovered, while other finds associated with the house were sherds of distinctive early Neolithic carinated bowl pottery, and stone tools including a broken stone axe.
Plant remains were equally illuminating: charred grains of naked barley and emmer wheat tell us the types of crops being grown in nearby fields, while abundant charred hazelnut shells show that the occupants also gathered wild foods that could be obtained along woodland margins. A finely flaked flint arrowhead suggests that the house’s inhabitants might have hunted wild animals, too. The acidic nature of the soils meant that unburnt bone did not survive, so we have no evidence for livestock, but Dr Jessica Smyth’s analysis of organic residues (lipids) absorbed into the fabric of carinated bowls from three contemporary Irish houses has shown that the pots were mostly used to process dairy products. So we can visualise the Neolithic people who lived here using their bowls to prepare and consume foods made with milk from cows that grazed in the surrounding fields.
Like many other Irish early Neolithic houses, the Ryleen example was not part of a village or clustered settlement. However, the distribution of stone axes and the presence of megalithic tombs in the region is a reminder that the people who lived here were part of an interconnected world that extended beyond the Lower Barrow Valley.
Places for the Bronze Age dead
Moving into the Bronze Age, the most significant evidence representing this period related not to the living, but to the dead, with at least 32 burials discovered at four sites. One of these contained the remains of a man who had endured a spinal joint disease in life before his death at the age of 35-45 in c.1600 BC. His cremated bones were placed in an urn and buried on the south-facing slope of Camlin Hill, overlooking the Camlin Stream and Barrow wetland, and the spot selected as his final resting place lay beside a natural boulder, possibly a landmark for people living in or passing through this landscape at the time.
A century or two later, a middle Bronze Age cemetery containing the cremated remains of at least 14 individuals was created about 200m uphill. In contrast to their earlier neighbour, each of these burials contained only a small amount of cremated bone – less than 100g – which was placed in a small pit, sometimes accompanied by simple stone beads or a sherd of pottery. Such ‘token’ cremations are typical of the Irish middle Bronze Age, as is the deposition of a limited range of grave goods: 14 more examples were found in a contemporary cemetery at Berkeley, 9km to the north-east.
These cemeteries are significant as both have produced a two-phase stratigraphic sequence and several radiocarbon dates, to which Dr Ben Spillane has applied Bayesian statistical analysis. From this we can see that both began with the burial of a couple of token cremations, most likely 1500-1400 BC. These were subsequently covered by spreads of clay – possibly immediately, possibly decades later – but this did not mark the end of the cemeteries’ use as, possibly as long as 90 years later, pits for further token cremations were dug through the clay, and burials continued for up to 60 years. Post- and stake-holes contemporary with both sets of burials may have held wooden grave-markers making the sites more visible in the landscape.
Not all of the pits held human remains, however: at both sites, some contained charred cereal grains and artefacts including stone tools, a quern fragment, and rubbing stones, while at Camlin a bucket-shaped pot had been placed upright on a flat stone. These suggest that the cemetery sites were also the location of non-funerary rituals. Camlin and Berkeley are now the best-understood Irish middle Bronze Age cemeteries, as they reveal the lengths to which these communities went to memorialise their dead over many generations, and how these places may have been the focus of ongoing ceremonies or activities that did not always include burying human remains.
Where did the people who buried their dead in these cemeteries live? This is one question that cannot be answered with evidence from the bypass investigations, as no Bronze Age settlements or houses were identified along the route. Ten fulachtaí fia – burnt mounds interpreted as open-air cooking places – were identified in low-lying areas, however, and Bronze Age pits were found at six locations. Nevertheless, their ephemeral nature and dispersed distribution suggests that they represent short-term or episodic activity away from the settlements, which must have been somewhere beyond the boundary of the new road, perhaps on higher ground.
The large number of Bronze Age sites indicates a much greater human presence in this landscape than before, suggestive of an increasing population. This is supported by palaeoenvironmental evidence which indicates coppicing of certain tree species and a significant expansion of farmland in the middle Bronze Age. The Camlin and Berkeley cemeteries are located in areas that may only have been recently cleared of woodland. Was the establishment of ancestral burial grounds in newly deforested land a way of these communities affirming and maintaining control of territories?
Places for medieval people
Dramatic changes were also heralded by the early medieval period, which witnessed the conversion of the population to Christianity, the introduction of literacy, the expansion of agriculture and the introduction of new technologies, the establishment of towns, and the development of novel forms of secular and religious settlement – including, at New Ross, the reputed foundation of a monastery by St Abbán in the 5th century. The Landscape Wetland pollen core reveals a reduction in tree pollen and simultaneous rise in grasses and herbaceous species during this period, speaking of woodland clearance and an expansion of pasture. As hay was not saved in early medieval Ireland, large parts of the landscape – typically uplands – were used for seasonal grazing of dairy herds. Maybe in this landscape lower-lying areas along the Barrow valley were used by early medieval farmers for seasonal pasturage?
It is in this part of the landscape that most of the evidence for early medieval activity was uncovered, generally associated with non-settlement practices. This bias is unsurprising, as, although the bypass runs through an area with a high density of ringforts, those settlements are typically located on the higher ground which the new road – and therefore the excavations – avoided. More common were agricultural and industrial traces including, at five sites, a total of six charcoal-production kilns dating from the 8th to 12th centuries. Charcoal was vital to metallurgy and other crafts and activities that required consistent, very high temperatures, and these kilns probably represent only a sample of a much larger number on the margins of woodlands, away from settlements.
The most significant late medieval site found in this road scheme was a well-preserved undefended 13th- to 14th-century farmstead discovered in Landscape, on the periphery of the Anglo-Norman manor of Old Ross. The farmstead extended over an area of approximately 1,400m2, a bit bigger than the combined area of five tennis courts, and it was enclosed by insubstantial boundary ditches, with a metalled surface identified along the northern boundary possibly representing an access route. Evidence for at least three buildings was uncovered, the main one being a clay-walled byre-house, approximately 13m long by 6m wide, with a doorway placed centrally in its long north wall. The interior was subdivided by a wattle screen, creating a residential room to the west (containing two hearths and over 39 stake-holes, probably indicating the former locations of fixed fittings) and a byre to the east. Within this latter space, a covered drain ran across the floor to a large external sump, while seven clusters of post- and stake-holes around the walls may represent the position of stalls.
To the south of the cottage, a 7.5m by 5m rectangular area defined by a U-shaped gully has been interpreted as the remains of an adjoining non-domestic building – possibly a store, workshop, or stable – and a third, more substantial structure was identified about 9m to the east. This was a free-standing, clay-walled building, whose long axis was oriented at right angles to that of the cottage and whose doorway faced the byre across the sub-rectangular farmyard. A quadrangular arrangement of post-holes at its southern end suggests this structure may have had a loft. As significant quantities of charred oat, barley, and other grains were recovered from the building, it has been interpreted as a barn associated with the processing and storage of cereals.
No animal bones survived in the acidic soil, but the presence of a sub-rectangular pen and possible hayrick suggest that the farmstead could have reared livestock, too. Pigs (which could have been housed in a small annex identified at the barn’s south gable) were evidently important to the local economy, as in 1288 the minister’s accounts for Old Ross manor record income from the ‘right of pannage [the grazing of swine] in the Woods’. Dr Margaret Murphy’s historical research also demonstrates that sheep-rearing was significant, with wool and fleeces exported through the port of New Ross, and cheese and mutton traded locally.
Interpreting identities
Who lived in this settlement? The farmstead’s location and apparent humble status suggests that it might have been occupied by betaghs, the name given to the Gaelic-Irish. This group occupied the lowest rung in late medieval feudal society, but appear to have comprised a large portion of the population on many Irish Anglo-Norman manors. A prevalence of the placename element graig- has led Dr Murphy to suggest that this was indeed an area of Gaelic-Irish settlement – but the farmstead’s layout, the morphology of its buildings, and associated material culture like wheel-thrown glazed earthenware all point to its occupation by Anglo-Norman peasant colonists. Whatever their background, the lives of the people who lived on and farmed the surrounding land would have been governed by Anglo-Norman economic and social structures. Through their labour, they provided for themselves and their lord, and during their daily activities they would have interacted with their neighbours, native and immigrant, countryfolk and townspeople.
Such interactions were not always friendly: the farmstead was abandoned by the end of the 14th century, and its house and barn appear to have burned down. The political context for their demise is the resurgence of the Gaelic-Irish, led by Art Mac Murchadha – a shift in political fortunes whose effects were captured in a letter from the Irish chancery in 1380. It paints a bleak picture of life for New Ross’ Anglo-Norman community, stating that ‘the country for four miles on all sides is wasted and destroyed by the Irish…’. Disturbed political conditions ultimately led to the disintegration of the manorial system, though we cannot tell from the excavated evidence if the farmstead was abandoned due to a direct attack, or because the way of life that its occupants had followed for almost two centuries had become unviable.
Above all, the range and diversity of evidence uncovered through archaeological and historical research associated with the bypass scheme has added significantly to our understanding of the history and settlement of the lower Barrow valley. Spanning the Mesolithic to the post-medieval period, these findings allow us to imagine the people and communities who created these places in the past. Excavation reports and associated datasets are available to download from the TII Digital Heritage Collections on http://www.dri.ie as a useful resource for anyone interested in New Ross and its hinterland, and the project’s results have been included in volumes of the ‘On Our Own Ground’ series on the heritage of Wexford’s parishes. Undoubtedly further research – particularly the application of novel scientific techniques to excavated artefacts and samples, and new discoveries – will only add to this story, further enriching our understanding of the people who considered this area home over the past nine millennia.
Further reading:
James Eogan and James Hession (eds) Places for the Living, Places for the Dead: archaeological discoveries on the N25 New Ross Bypass (Transport Infrastructure Ireland, ISBN 978-1911633389, €25 via Wordwell Books), or open access online at www.tii.ie/technical-services/archaeology/publications/tii-heritage.
