This publication details the results of archaeological excavation at sites revealed during the 1986 Bord Gas Eireann gas pipeline construction projects in Waterford, Tipperary, Cork and Limerick. In what could be regarded as an archaeological trial trench through the Munster countryside, an extensive range of prehistoric sites and features was uncovered, sometimes in areas in which their presence had not been expected, as well as a small number of medieval and post-medieval sites.

Among the 70 sites uncovered were a Neolithic house over 5,000 years old, a large number of Bronze Age burial and ritual sites, later prehistoric dwellings, an ancient roadway and fulachta fiadh (ancient cooking places).