Newrath wetland site: new N25 bypass construction, Co. Kilkenny

A programme of palaeoenvironmental works was commissioned from a multi-period wetland site in Newrath, Co Kilkenny for the National Roads Authority of Ireland (NRA).  Here a multi-proxy approach was coordinated using both in-house specialists (pollen, plant macrofossil, wood analyses) and specialists from Bath-Spa, Coventry and St Andrews Universities (foraminifera, diatom analyses).  Results show Newrath was an increasingly wet environment from the Neolithic onwards with a successional sequence of dry land surface - carr-woodland – reedswamp – saltmarsh.  Analyses also show evidence for agricultural practice in both the Neolithic and Bronze Age, with the former taking place during a period of increasingly unsettled weather patterns.