County: Offaly Site name: KILCORMAC OR FRANKFORD
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 31:13 Licence number: 99E0264
Author: Dominic Delany
Site type: Pit circle
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 617909m, N 714055m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.176665, -7.732091
Monitoring of topsoil removal was undertaken before Phase 1 of a proposed residential development from 18 May to 4 June 1999. The site, a green-field area (c. 2 acres) on the east side of the town, is close to a recorded monument. The Archaeological inventory of County Offaly describes it as 'a low mound (diam. 13m N–S; H 1.5m) enclosed by a fosse (D 0.3m; Wth 1m) with an external bank visible from N-E-S'.
The stratigraphy was relatively uniform across the stripped area. A dark brown, clayey sand topsoil (0.45m deep) overlay a layer of mid-brown, sandy clay (0.2m deep), which contained post-medieval and modern pottery sherds, corroded iron nails, iron slag, coal, red brick, slate and animal bone. This overlay a compact, orange, silty sand subsoil that occurred in patches across the site. It had an average thickness of 0.2m and overlay a compact, light grey, natural boulder clay.
A random cluster of eight possible post-holes was exposed adjacent to the north baulk at the north-west end of the access road. One of these features was excavated. It was subcircular in plan (diameter 0.35m) and round-bottomed in profile (0.26m in diameter) and contained two sterile fills. The upper fill comprised a compact, orange, silty sand 0.12m thick, and this overlay a compact, mid-brown, clayey sand 0.14m thick. The excavation was inconclusive, but the features were covered with plastic sheeting and topsoil before the laying of hardcore for the access road. Further investigation will be undertaken should this area be exposed during the proposed second phase of the development.
31 Ashbrook, Oranmore, Co. Galway
