County: Kildare Site name: CORBALLY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0094
Author: Avril Purcell, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 684932m, N 713031m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.160991, -6.729956
A geophysical survey was conducted in advance of the expansion of a sand quarry at Corbally, Co. Kildare. The geophysical survey was carried out adjacent to the site of three Neolithic houses, uncovered by excavation (No. 306, Excavations 1998). A 20m x 40m area was surveyed; four test-trenches were subsequently opened to calibrate the results.
The geophysical surveying was conducted in June and July 1998, while the Neolithic structures were still under excavation. Both magnetic susceptibility and magnetic gradiometry surveys were conducted. A series of positive anomalies was identified by the magnetic susceptibility survey, and a series of positive and negative anomalies was identified by the magnetic gradiometry survey. However, these anomalies did not suggest the presence of coherent archaeological deposits consistent with the Neolithic houses. The test-trenches revealed several isolated post- and stake-holes. However, most of the anomalies highlighted by the geophysical surveys proved to relate to subsoil changes and not to archaeological deposits.
When the area was fully stripped of topsoil this pattern of isolated ephemeral small features continued. In spite of its close proximity to the Neolithic houses, no large-scale archaeological deposits were revealed.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
