1995:135 - DINGLE, Kerry

Monitoring here was carried out from 28 November 1994 to 3 February 1995. It was confined to Goat St., Main St., John St. and The Mall, where spur-trenches were being dug from the houses to the centre of the road where the main pipe was already laid.

In trenches dug on The Mall and on John St., highly organic silty layers were uncovered at c. 0.5m below the surface. These layers contained large amounts of wood, bone, shell, glass and turf fragments. Only one pottery sherd was recovered, dating from the 18th/19th century.

In two trenches dug at the lower, south end of Main St., a more extensive stratigraphy was revealed, with four distinct levels of stone surface, as follows:
(a) 0.2m below surface, cobblestones set on edge in a bed of gritty sand;
(b) 0.5m below surface, layer of stones laid flat and lying on a black, sandy organic layer containing occasional shell fragments;
(c) 0.65m below surface, a layer of rounded cobblestones set on edge in a layer of sand containing occasional fragments of animal bone and shell;
(d) 1m below surface, a layer of flat stones set on edge in natural silty mud. Packed between these stones was a thin layer of highly organic material containing fragments of wood, peat and bone.

Trenches dug further north in Main St. showed traces of cobblestone surfaces, though these had been heavily disturbed by previous work.

No archaeological strata were observed in trenches dug in Goat St., to the north of Main St., or at the south end of John St., indicating that past occupation was confined to the low-lying areas of the town around the junction of Main St., John St., Spa Rd and The Mall and extending north along Main St. and south along John St., but, in the latter case at least, not extending as far as the presumed line of the town wall.

Ballynanelagh, Rathcormac, Co. Cork