County: Cork Site name: DERRIGRA EAST
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0638
Author: Redmond Tobin, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 534127m, N 554874m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.742339, -8.953871
This site was seriously damaged before and during topsoil-stripping of the Ballincollig–Ballineen gas pipeline. Obviously, this site had been deliberately levelled during drainage work, well in advance of the pipeline development. The site was again heavily damaged during the topsoil-stripping, leaving just a few patches of the distinctive burnt mound intact.
The site lies in a stream valley running from north to south on an east-facing slope. The spring supplying the water rises to the north of this location. The immediate area around this site had been drained, and topsoil was spread over the whole area. Land use in the immediate vicinity of this site is pasture/arable. Unfortunately, considering the condition of this site before excavation, it is fair to say that very little evidence of this site will survive after this development.
The existing spread of burnt material extended 4.8m north–south and 7m east–west along the pipeline corridor. Most of the material had been scraped off during the stripping, exposing patches of oxidised clay underneath.
A dense deposit of charcoal-blackened soil and shattered stone was exposed during the clearance of one of the major spreads of burnt material. As the burnt material was reduced around this feature, it became clearly defined as an ovate/subrectangular feature 1.62m east–west by 1.47m. This feature, a possible trough, was half-sectioned. The main fill was burnt material. Once removed, this revealed a layer of reddish-brown sandy silt, which covered a very substantial layer of charcoal. The charcoal extended up to line the side of the possible trough on the southern side and was partly embedded in a matrix of white/light grey clay. The trough was lined with wicker/wattle embedded in an impermeable clay. The nature of the fill and the relative absence of silting might suggest that the trough was deliberately backfilled or abandoned after use.
This site, while found in a very advanced state of destruction, gave a very clear example of the type of trough and lining used in these sites.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
