County: Limerick Site name: BALLYCUMMIN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E380-AR15
Author: James Eogan, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: House - 18th/19th century
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 556059m, N 650545m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.604386, -8.648689
As part of the Adare-Annacotty Road Improvement Scheme, two cuttings were excavated by hand to assess the antiquity and preservation of two buildings which are depicted within a subrectangular enclosure at this location on the first edition of the OS 6" map. Cutting 1 (11m long by 1m wide) was positioned across a slight south-facing slope. Below a topsoil layer that varied from 0. 12m to 0.28m in depth, three distinct layers were identified. A lens of trampled mortar with red brick extended over the northern half of the cutting; this layer was no more than 20mm thick, was most compact and contained the greatest amount of red brick up to 3.5m from the northern end of the cutting. In the area beyond this (up to 6.1m from the northern end of the cutting) the red brick was less frequent and the mortar was discontinuous.
A layer of charcoal-flecked dark brown silt was noted between 6.1m and 7.2m from the northern end of the cutting; it butted up against a layer of large subangular stones that were contained in a matrix of dark brown silt. This layer extended up to 9.2m from the northern end of the cutting. The band of stones seemed to run at an oblique angle to the line of the cutting and it seems likely that it is the last remnant of a stone footing for a stone wall. Modern crockery, glass and iron artefacts were found among and under the stones. The rest of the cutting contained a layer of mid-brown sandy silt, which was flecked with charcoal.
The only other feature in the cutting was a slight hollow in the natural that was filled with a deposit of small stones in a matrix of charcoal-flecked, mid-brown silt between 3.8m and 4.7m from the northern end of the cutting; a single piece of modern china was found in this layer.
Cutting 2 (5m long by 1m wide) was located 12m southeast of Cutting 1 at the top of an east-facing slope; nothing of archaeological interest was found in this cutting, which was excavated to a maximum depth of 0.36m.
The assessment confirmed that this is the location of the settlement depicted on the first-edition OS map; on the basis of the excavated remains, these houses appear to have been in use in the nineteenth century.
Power House, Pigeon House Harbour, Dublin 4
