EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Cork
Banduff, Co. Cork
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure
Grid Ref: W70427417 (17042/07417)
SMR No: CO074:20
Excavation Licence: 99E0113
Excavation Duration/Year: March & May 1999
Site Director: S. Lane (Sheila Lane Ltd.)
Initial testing at a levelled enclosure at Banduff revealed evidence for an eighth/ninth-century
enclosure ditch, a stone revetted internal bank and associated trenches, deposits and
surfaces. The site was located in the suburbs of Cork on the side of a fairly steep, southfacing
slope.
Five trenches were excavated across the arc of the enclosing ditch (Fig. 58). The top of the
ditch was widest at the north (5m) and narrowest at the northwest side (3m). The ditch
originally had a shallow (0.45m deep) U-shaped profile, which was re-cut in places to form a
steep-sided U-shaped profile (1.30m deep). The re-cut ditch was significantly narrower than
the earlier ditch, with a maximum width of 2.40m.
The sequence of in-filling of the ditches was broadly similar. The primary fill of the re-cut
ditch contained medium-sized stones which may represent the collapse of stone facing from
the associated enclosing bank (the upper levels of which revealed an eighth/ninth-century
bronze plain-ringed loop-headed pin). More recent fills of the re-cut ditch contained
decomposed organic matter and field clearance stones.
The enclosing bank was levelled in the 1970s, although its base could be determined as a
convex curve (5.35m wide) along the inside of the ditch. A stone feature (1.96m by 0.60m)
set into the boulder clay on the outer line of the bank appears to have formed the footing for
a stone facing for the outer face of the bank. Another stone spread (1.20m by 1.0m) on the
boulder clay inside and to the south of the base of the bank and appears to have originally
formed part of a stone facing for the inner face of the bank. There was nothing to indicate
that the bank had been backfilled into the ditch.
The other possible archaeological features on the site included a pathway, a charcoal spread,
and a couple of trenches. A spread of hard-packed small stones (1.60m by 0.40m, and 0.16m
thick) lay on the shallow curve of the ditch on top of the boulder clay. The stones appear to
have been deliberately packed tightly together to form a path outside the bank which may
have been contemporary with the enclosure. Alternatively, they could form part of a lane
which is depicted skirting the site on its north-eastern side on both the 1842 and 1950
Ordnance Survey maps.
A small irregularly-shaped charcoal spread (1.70m by 0.16m, and between 0.04m-0.11m
thick) was exposed on the eastern side inside the northern arc of the ditch. A layer of redeposited
clay (0.15-0.25m thick) overlay the spread at its northern end. A shallow trench
(2.25m by 030m and 0.12m deep) contained brown slightly burnt soil, possibly washed out
from the charcoal spread. Another trench (2.40m x 0.30m and 0.08m deep) contained some
medium-sized stones, two bone fragments and a narrow lens of charcoal (0.15m diameter by
0.04m thick).
The recovery of the loop-headed ringed pin from the upper levels of the primary fill of the recut
ditch indicates that the enclosure was occupied and altered during or before the
eighth/ninth century. Associated with it may have been a stone revetted bank, material of
which subsequently collapsed into the re-cut ditch at a certain point. A series of undated
spreads and trenches were uncovered in the enclosure’s interior and a path lay immediately
outside the enclosing bank.
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