County: Cork Site name: KILLANULLY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 86:47 and 86:48 Licence number: —
Author: Charles Mount
Site type: Ringfort - rath and Souterrain; Enclosure
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 569156m, N 563663m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.824365, -8.447434
The 2 sites excavated were situated in the townland of Killanully in the parish of Ballygarvan, about 1 mile east of the town of Ballygarvan in south-eastern Cork. The sites were situated on the crest of an east-west running limestone ridge, just above the 30m (100ft) contour at 41m OD. The excavation took place from the 13th July to 28th August 1992.
Site 1: The ringfort and souterrain
This was a flattened oval area 25m north-south by 36m east- west in internal diameter enclosed by a low internal bank and shallow, rather narrow external ditch. A linear hollow, running generally east-west, was noted on the surface before excavation and on examination was found to be a rock-cut, stone-built souterrain.
The ditch consisted of a single concave V-shaped cut 1.95m in width and 1.05m in depth with a steep inner and mote gentle outer slope. This contained 2 fills and a small amount of animal bone, representing bank material which had eroded back into the ditch.
The bank was about 1.55m in width and survived to 0.35m in height above the natural and consisted of a single layer of material with some animal bone. There was no indication of a revetting, although several large stones found in the top of the ditch fill could have formed part of a revetment.
The entrance was situated on the eastern side of the site and consisted of an uncut causeway 3.5m in width. The bank had been flattened on the northern side and survived only as a stain on the sub-soil. A soil stain on the southern side up to 2m in width indicated its southern terminal.
The souterrain was situated in the south-western part of the site. It consisted of a single curving passage 11.3m in length and 1.85m in depth below the present ground surface. It was 0.96m in width near the southern end and originally about 1m in height when roofed. It was constructed by digging a curvilinear V-shaped trench and at the southern end it terminated at a blank vertical cut in the boulder clay. The southern part of the structure was of post and panel construction. The northern section was composed of dry-stone walling with a few orthostats placed near the entrance. Only one lintel stone remained in situ, this had been placed on a stack of dry-stone walling, which set it above the level of the remainder of the walling. The souterrain had already been emptied out and backfilled and contained 5 separate fills with occasional inclusions of animal bone, molluscs and charcoal.
The furnace was a deep circular pit, with a flue, dug into the boulder clay. The flue extended south-east from the furnace and was about 0.6m in length. The furnace pit contained 5 separate layers of fill containing a large quantity of iron slag and some animal bone.
Site 2: The rectangular enclosure
This site was situated 25m to the north-east of Site 1. It was a rectangular banked and ditched enclosure which measured internally 19.5m east-west by 14m north-south and was contiguous to a field boundary on its eastern side.
The bank and ditch were sectioned and the bank, which measured 3m in width and 0.6m in maximum height, was found to consist of 2 layers containing a small quantity of animal bone built on the old ground surface. The ditch consisted of a shallow U-shaped cut 2m in width at the top and up to 0.5m in depth. It contained 2 layers of fill. Where it met the field boundary it was found to end at a solid vertical face of bed-rock which was stratified under the old ground surface and the stone and earthen field boundary. Therefore the enclosure post-dates the construction of the field boundary.
The interior of the site was found to contain no features of any kind. It consisted of a layer of brown almost stone-free loam to a depth of 0.6m and appeared to be a cultivation horizon. The finds from the site consisted mainly of post-medieval pottery and parts of clay pipes so that the site would appear to date to the 18th century or later.
See Mount, C. 1992, 'Killanully, Co. Cork.', Digging up Cork, Archaeological Excavations in Cork 1992, Cork Public Museum, 14–17, for a full report.
77 Hawthorns, Sandyford, Dublin 16
