2022:761 - MILLSTREET: Ballydaly Water Rehabilitation Scheme, Ballydaly, Cork

Monitoring was proposed for the southern section of works on a watermains rehabilitation scheme at Ballydaly, Millstreet. A number of recorded monuments lie in close proximity to the pipe route, including ringfort CO038-087001- which is cut by the road along which pipes were to be laid. Souterrain CO038-026001- is associated with this ringfort but its exact location relative to the road is not clear. It is possible that parts of these monuments could survive beneath the road surface and it was therefore recommended that pipes in this area be laid by open-cut trenching under archaeological supervision.

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

As no monitoring was carried out on this scheme, it cannot be definitively known whether the pipe laying had any impact on sub-surface archaeological deposits. However, given that the pipe route passed directly through a levelled ringfort (CO038-087001), it is highly likely that pipe laying impacted the ringfort ditch in at least two places. This section of pipe was laid by directional drilling, with a drilling machine tunnelling horizontally through the ground beneath the road surface.

Upon request, photographs of some of the areas of works were provided by the contractor. One of the photographs provided shows a drill access pit in the area immediately north of where the ringfort is thought to be, with possible archaeological deposits visible beneath the road surface, potentially the ringfort ditch. Part of the section close to souterrain CO038-140 was laid in an open-cut trench. Images of these areas of open-cut trench reveal that, at least in the parts for which photographs are available, the modern road surface overlies shale and sandstone bedrock

To summarise, due to the lack of concurrent archaeological monitoring on the scheme it cannot be definitively known whether the pipe laying had any impact on sub-surface archaeological deposits. An examination of photographs provided of some of the works suggest that the current road surface directly overlies natural geological deposits in some places, but that archaeological material may have been encountered in at least one location.