1999:117 - MONARD, Cork

The site was exposed during monitoring of topsoil-stripping along the route of a Bord Gáis Éireann pipeline that extended from Caherlag to Ballincollig, Co. Cork. The site was initially identified as a large spread of blackened and fire-shattered stone immediately beneath the topsoil. Preliminary investigations appeared to confirm the location of a trough beneath the burnt spread. There had been no evidence of the site before the plant works.

The spread extended along the line of the pipeline for 15m and up to 10m into the wayleave. Only the trough and a possible hearth were identified during the excavation. The trough was roughly square, measuring 2.1m by 1.8m, and was orientated roughly east-west. It was fairly straight-sided, but its base sloped slightly to the north with a maximum depth of 0.65m. The base of the trough was filled with a 0.15–0.2m-deep deposit of grey silt mixed with heat-shattered stones. This was in turn sealed by 0.4m of heat-shattered stone in a loose, black/brown soil with charcoal flecks. There was no evidence of a lining for the trough.

Immediately to the east of the main area of the trough was a slightly shallower (0.25m), horseshoe-shaped cut that may have been the location of the hearth. The upper edge of the cut for the trough and this possible hearth cut were indistinguishable from one another, with the hearth area being an extension of the trough. The hearth covered an area 1.85m across the horns and 1.25m from front to back. A number of small stones set into the eastern face of the hearth cut may represent the remains of possible walling/kerbing. There was no evidence that the hearth was floored.

The location of the hearth to the east of the trough is suggested primarily because no other features were recorded during the excavation and this was therefore the most likely siting for the hearth.

2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin