County: Kerry Site name: FERRITER'S COVE, Ballyoughteragh North
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 42:35 Licence number: E000263
Author: Peter Woodman, Dept. of Archaeology, University College Cork
Site type: Midden
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 432986m, N 605255m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.173808, -10.441926
Excavations at Ferriter's Cove in 1993 were directed towards the completion of work commenced in 1992 (Excavations 1992, 34-5) and in initiating the survey and analysis of the environmental context of the site. Financial assistance was given by the OPW through the National Committee for Archaeology of the Royal Irish Academy.
Excavation
Excavation concentrated on a strip 2m x 15m along the eastern edge of the site. At the end of the 1992 season two areas of burning were noted to be running out to the east and so the excavation was extended to encompass these areas.
Along the northern edge there was an area of burning which had been inadvertently damaged by previous machine activity. Running out to the west was a substantial concentration of burnt stone, the edge of which had been noted in 1992 and which may relate in turn to the burnt stones found in Context 355. In the same northern portion of the site two stakeholes were uncovered. These were in line with a run of stakeholes observed in the previous season. Excavation in 1993 confirmed that these stakeholes appeared to underlie the silt rather than cut through it.
To the south excavation immediately round the burnt area, Context 308, produced relatively little. However, along the southern edge of the extension, where the excavation had been extended, several pockets of shells as well as a scatter of large greenstone flakes were found. Again a number of small stakeholes were found cut into the underlying platform on which the site rested. Along the south-eastern edge there was a sharp rise in the gravel. This might mark a washing limit.
To the south of the excavation it had been noted that the cliff face was relatively stable, however, one particular area was noted to be at risk (Site Z). This area was particularly rich in sea shells. Therefore two 1m2 test pits were excavated. These produced the remains of a small midden with quantities of fish bone, which lay within a layer of silt which covered in turn the underlying gravel.
Environmental and Contextual Analysis
Due to the absence of any detailed mapping of the area, a contour map of the field and the cliff edge has been prepared prior to prospection work to determine the pre-sand dune topography of the site.
Staff of the Geography Department, UCC, under the direction of Dr. Devoy, carried out a preliminary exploration of the Holocene deposits of the area to determine whether there were any indicators of the location of the mid-Holocene shoreline. This work has shown significant depths of what would appear to be freshwater deposits in both Smerwick Harbour and Ferriter's Cove.
Hopefully excavation of the areas immediately at risk at Ferriter's Cove can now be considered complete but only the topographic and environmental analysis will allow us to place the excavation in a larger context and assess whether at some point in the future other excavations should take place.
