County: Tipperary Site name: CURRAGHATOOR
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Martin G. Doody, Dept. of Archaeology, University College Cork
Site type: Settlement cluster
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 600368m, N 618198m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.315425, -7.994600
A fifth season of excavation was undertaken at Curraghatoor during a 7 week period in July and August of 1990. The work was financed by a grant from the Royal Irish Academy administered by the Office of Public Works. The site is a later Bronze Age settlement with radiocarbon dates centring on c. 1000 BC. It first came to light during the construction of the Cork-Dublin natural gas pipeline in 1982 when three huts of circular ground plan were excavated. Since then an area of 250 sq. m has been investigated up to 40m away from the original site. At the end of the current season it was apparent that the settlement at Curraghatoor was far more extensive than had originally been thought. The remains of at least 12 structures have been uncovered. These include 8 possible hut structures and what appear to have been fence lines.
A substantial ditch was uncovered at the site in 1987. Further work on this feature has indicated that it is not the earliest feature on the site as it cuts one of the hut structures. It is evidently not the latest structure on the site as at least one fence line was erected after the ditch had been backfilled.
