County: Cork Site name: CRUMPANE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 102:23 Licence number: 99E0410
Author: William O'Brien
Site type: Mine - copper
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 466571m, N 550160m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.687976, -9.929856
This primitive copper mine is 2km north-east of the village of Eyeries at the western end of the Beara Peninsula, Co. Cork. The site consists of a series of three inclined openings at the base of a low rock face that exposes sedimentary copper mineralisation. The mines are flooded and partly infilled but have all the characteristics of Mount Gabriel-type operations. There are extensive deposits of mine spoil to the immediate south and north of these workings, with a thin cover of blanket bog growth in this area.
A sample excavation was carried out here in August 1999, primarily to recover charcoal samples for radiocarbon dating. Two 1m2 cuttings were excavated on the spoil deposits adjacent to the mine. Both test-pits produced a large number of stone hammers, consisting of broken beach cobbles with a number of haft-modified examples. Test-pit 1 revealed a 0.22–0.35m thickness of blanket peat, overlying a 0.37–0.46m-thick deposit of mine spoil. A charcoal sample from this broken rock sediment has been radiocarbon dated to 3200±30 BP (GrN-25063, courtesy Jan Lanting).
Test-pit 2 is 8m north of the mine entrance, on a low mound of eroding mine spoil. Removal of thin blanket peat growth exposed a 1.3–1.4m thickness of loose mine spoil. A charcoal sample from the upper part of this deposit has been radiocarbon dated to 3370±30 BP (GrN-25064), with a second charcoal result of 3370±30 BP (GrN-25065) from near the base.
These results confirm an Early to Middle Bronze Age date range for this copper-mining activity.
Department of Archaeology, National University of Ireland Galway
