County: Cork Site name: TABOR LODGE RINGFORT, Ballindeasig
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 113:01601 Licence number: 93E0007
Author: Colin Breen, c/o Archaeological Services Unit, University College Galway
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 573555m, N 553565m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.733820, -8.382852
The Archaeological Services Unit at UCG was contracted by Tabor Lodge Rehabilitation Centre to carry out a trial excavation on their premises in advance of construction. They proposed to extend their building into a possible ringfort. A two-week excavation was carried out from the 18th to the 29th January to assess the nature of the archaeological deposits.
Two cuttings were opened up at right angles to each other in the south-west quadrant of the site. Both cuttings produced evidence of past activity. A deep V-shaped trench was found in Cutting 1A, running east-west, in the same stratigraphic layer as a pit and a stakehole in Cutting 2A. This trench possibly ran around the interior of the fort and may constitute an earlier building phase. Burnt bone coupled with the charcoal found in the shallow pit would suggest domestic activity on the site.
A flat-bottomed trench was found in Cutting 2A. It was 1.2m wide and 0.75m deep and was filled with brown soil and rough angular slate stones. It ran north-south and probably would have cut the V-shaped trench. Some iron slag was also found.
Due to the level of preservation on site the developers decided to locate the extension in another part of the property.
