2022:760 - MACROOM: Carrigadrohid Water Main Rehabilitation, Killinardrish, Coolnasoon and Cooldrum, Cork

Monitoring was recommended for parts of a watermain rehabilitation scheme along local roads and a greenfield site south of Carrigadrohid village, in the townlands of Classes, Monallig, Killinardrish, Coolnasoon and Cooldrum.

It was recommended that ground disturbances be monitored in the central part of the pipe-laying works within the Zone Of Notifications (ZON) for fulachtaí fia CO071-122, CO071-124 and CO071-125 in Killinardrish townland, the eastern part of the works adjacent to another fulacht fia (CO071-121—-) in Coolnasoon townland, as well as to the north along the boundary between Killinardrish and Coolnasoon in the ZON for a burial ground, souterrain and ringfort (CO071-113001-, CO071-113002-, CO071-113003-).

Unfortunately, due to an oversight on the part of the main contractor, the archaeologists were not informed when works were taking place and the entire scheme was constructed without archaeological monitoring.

For the part of the scheme where an existing watermain was to be decommissioned (i.e. adjacent to monuments CO071-113), no excavation was necessary and the pipe was blanked from existing connections. Elsewhere, pipes were laid in open-cut trenches, typically 0.6m wide and 1.2m deep, excavated by a tracked mechanical excavator with a toothless grading bucket.

Photographs of some of the works were provided by the contractor. These images reveal that, at least in the parts of the trench for which photographs are available, the modern road surface directly overlies natural geological deposits of stony orange glacial till or pinkish mudstone/sandstone. The contractor has stated that in the western part of the scheme, in Classes townland, the trench revealed that the road surface sits directly above bedrock.