County: Cork Site name: POUL GORM, Glengarriff
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Adelaide McCarthy, Archaeology Dept., University College Cork
Site type: Midden
Period/Dating: Neolithic (4000BC-2501 BC)
ITM: E 492973m, N 556265m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.748493, -9.550041
This site was identified as a shell midden with possible stone tools and no domesticated animal bones. A two-week excavation was carried out here during the early summer of 1985, but the site is included in this bulletin as it forms part of a project to locate and excavate early coastal sites in SW Ireland.
Two areas of shells, upwards of 50cm thick and up to 10m long, were identified on a cliff face at Poul Gorm. At site 1, a 6m x 3m trench was excavated; at site 2, one 2m x 1.50m trench was opened at site 3, another 2m x 1.5m trench was opened. Excavations revealed limited areas of shells usually backed up against bedrock. Unfortunately, the middens were not only buried under up to 1m of earth but a thick mat of rhododendron roots had to be removed. The middens consisted of simple mounds of shells interdigitated with lenses of burnt material. In the case of site 3, a layer of intensely burnt material was found below the mid-den. No animal bones were found associated with the middens but some fractured stones were recovered.
Two combined charcoal and shell samples were submitted to the Cambridge C14 laboratory:
Trench 1: charcoal, 2510 ± 80 BP; shell, 3040 ± 60 BP;
Trench 2: charcoal, 2120 ± 50 BP; shell, 2610± 50 BP.
