County: Offaly Site name: RATHCOBICAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 11:17 Licence number: 99E0461
Author: Dominic Delany
Site type: Enclosure and Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 653792m, N 732199m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.337293, -7.192310
Test excavation was undertaken, from 30 August to 3 September 1999, before application for planning permission for four detached dwellings. The sites are within the area of constraint around a ringfort that consists of a raised circular platform (diameter 44.8m, height 1m), enclosed by a slight bank largely reduced to a scarp, and an external fosse (width 4m, depth 0.9m). The SMR file for this site also notes that a field system possibly associated with the ringfort exists in the area west and south-west of the monument. The ringfort is 25m from the eastern edge of the proposed development site, which measures 70m north-south by 125m.
Three test-trenches were mechanically excavated, 125m long and 1.5m wide, extending east-west across the site. The features encountered were three spreads of burnt material, probably levelled fulachta fiadh, and portion of a circular enclosure, possibly a ring-ditch. Several linear and curvilinear features were also encountered, but it was not clearly established whether these were of archaeological significance. The archaeological features were recorded as follows.
A large spread of burnt material (17m east-west) was encountered midway along Trench 1. The burnt material directly underlay the sod and had an average thickness of 0.35m, lensing out to 0.05m at the east and west. The eastern edge of the spread is clearly defined by a curvilinear feature, 1.7m wide, and a second curvilinear feature, 1.2m wide, was encountered 22m west of the burnt material. It is possible that the curvilinear features represent the east and west limits of a large circular enclosure (diameter c. 44m).
The south edge of a circular enclosure, possibly a ring-ditch, was encountered at the east end of Trench 2. The ditch is 1.2m wide, and the maximum external diameter of the exposed portion of the feature was 13m east-west. A spread of burnt material (9m east-west) was encountered at the west end of the trench.
A spread of burnt material (12.5m east-west) was encountered close to the east end of Trench 3. The east edge of the spread is defined by a curvilinear feature, 2.4m wide, and a second curvilinear feature, 2m wide, was encountered 25m east of the burnt material. Again it is possible that these curvilinear features represent the east and west limits of a large circular enclosure (diameter c. 45m).
The cost of full archaeological excavation made the development unfeasible.
31 Ashbrook, Oranmore, Co. Galway
