At Killincarrig in County Wicklow, a spread of burnt material was identified during test excavations carried out by Margaret Gowen in 1992, the kind of find that immediately raises questions: the remnant of a hearth, a burning event, some trace of human activity preserved in the soil? The spread was enough to warrant further attention, and so the site passed to the next stage of investigation.

When Alan Hayden opened up the area more fully the following year, excavating a zone designated Area V, no additional features came to light and no finds were recovered. The burnt spread, whatever its origin, turned out to be an isolated anomaly rather than the edge of something larger. In archaeological terms, this is not a failure so much as a result, one that quietly closes a question rather than opening new ones. Sites like this are a routine part of the archaeological process, particularly in advance of development, where test trenches are dug across ground that may or may not hold buried remains, and the evidence, such as it is, is assessed and recorded before any construction proceeds.