County: Cork Site name: CALLAROS OUGHTER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 147:32 Licence number: 00E0255
Author: William O’Brien, Department of Archaeology, NUI Galway
Site type: Mine - copper
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 479273m, N 528066m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.492331, -9.738637
This sample excavation of a primitive copper mine took place in April 2000. The site is located 1.7km west of Goleen village, at the western end of the Mizen Peninsula. It consists of a single inclined working on a west-facing ridge, with a spread of eroding rock spoil downslope in front of the mine opening. There is no record of mining here in recent centuries, though the site is recorded locally as a ‘Danes Shaft’.
In April 2000 the surface spoil was sampled by test-pit excavation. A 1m2 test-pit was dug on level ground 3m west of the mine entrance; the total depth of excavation was 0.5–0.8m. This exposed several layers of crushed rock sediment containing charcoal and a large number of broken stone hammers. The latter are similar in terms of haft modification to those found in the Mount Gabriel mines in this peninsula. A charcoal sample recovered from a depth of 0.4m within this primitive mine sediment has been radiocarbon dated to 3360±90 BP (GrN-25562). A second charcoal sample taken from a different spoil layer is dated to 3410±50 BP (GrN-25563). These dates place this mining event in the latter stages of the Early Bronze Age, c. 1800–1600 BC.
This project was carried out as part of the Galway–Gronigen dating programme for primitive copper mines in south-west Ireland.
