1997:042 - KILL-SAINT-ANNE-SOUTH, Cork

The planned extension of a farm machinery garage at Kill-Saint-Anne-South, Castlelyons, Co. Cork, which is situated adjacent to a fortified house, Ballymore Castle, necessitated an archaeological evaluation by trial-trenching before full planning permission could be granted.

Five trenches were opened by machine and investigated by hand. The trenches were located in the general area indicated by the Cork County Council National Monuments Advisory Committee. Trenches 2–5 produced no archaeological remains of import. The top 0.6–0.8m consisted of mid-grey/brown stony rubble with occasional fragments of red brick. This red brick matched brick which is evident in places in the surviving sections of the fortified house. An examination of this brick revealed it to be very well made (very little oxidation evident), with dimensions typical of 19th-century Munster bricks (Colin Rynne, pers. comm.). It is hypothesised that these bricks are evidence of 19th-century conservation efforts. This rubble layer overlay a natural regolith layer.

Trench 1 (4m north-south x 3m east-west x 1.5m deep) had a top layer of mid-brown rubble containing the same red brick found in the other trenches. This layer overlay a mid-dark brown layer with a high organic content which appeared at a depth of 0.2m to the south and 0.8m to the north. The organic component of this layer consisted of oyster shells, abundant animal bones, frequent small mammal bones and occasional land snails. No artefacts were found in this layer, which ran the full length of the trench but extended only 1.1m from the western baulk. It overlay an interface layer consisting of regolith and midden material, which in turn overlay a sterile layer of regolith. The midden material appears to have been banked up against large boulders in a hollow to the immediate east of the fortified house.

The developers' plans were changed to avoid the area which produced the midden material.

Rathcormac, Co. Cork