EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Cork
Carrigrohane, Co. Cork
Early Medieval Settlement Enclosure
Grid Ref: W6015/7076 (16015/07076)
SMR No: CO073-082
Excavation Licence: 03E0967
Excavation Duration/year: 2003
Site Director: C. Moloney (Headland Archaeology)
A levelled bivallate enclosure was excavated prior to residential development. It revealed
evidence for internal and external enclosing ditches as well as a possible internal souterrain
and the truncated remains of drains, pits and other features; however the site interior had
been damaged by both agricultural activity and recent developments in the area.
The site was recorded as a crop-mark on an aerial photograph consisting of two concentric
rings with a maximum external diameter of 60m and an enclosed space of 40m-45m. The
truncated remains of the inner and outer ditches were 1m apart and corresponded well with
the area enclosed by the inner crop-mark on the aerial photograph (Fig. 63).
The heavily truncated remains of a possible outer ditch were identified as a narrow parallel
linear feature, and the inner ditch (maximum width of 3.3m) was broadly aligned with the
inner crop-mark on the aerial photograph. Both these ditches contained silty-clay fills with
charcoal inclusions, and a sherd of souterrain ware and one piece of animal bone was found
in the inner ditch.
Another internal ditch or possible destroyed souterrain, 3.0m in width, was uncovered. It
contained a similar mid-brown silty-clay fill deposit with occasional charcoal to the excavated
ditches though did not align with either of the crop-marks evident on the aerial photograph. A
substantial sandy-clay deposit in the three trenches in the centre of the enclosure may
represent material deposited after the removal of the possible souterrain. The extent of this
deposit implies that the possible souterrain may have been a substantial structure extending
over 8m.
A series of anomalous deposits possibly consisting of the truncated remains of drains, pits
and structures were uncovered in the interior of the enclosure. A series of small pits and
deposits in the southeast of the interior may possibly be related to some form of structure in
this area, and a possible field drain with occasional large sub-angular stones was located to
the northwest of the internal ditch/possible souterrain.
A large diagonal cut in the eastern end of Trench 2 in the enclosure’s interior revealed one
fragment of post-medieval pottery (brown-ware). A series of four cultivation furrows (013-
016) - 2.3m apart and 1m in width- were excavated to the south-west of the enclosure and
may represent the remains of lazy-beds associated with post-medieval cultivation.
The souterrain ware pottery from the fill of the enclosing ditch indicates that this site was an
early medieval enclosure which contained a possible north-western entrance, a possible
internal souterrain and a series of features possibly relating to a structure in the southeast of
the internal space.
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