2000:0141 - KILLALOUGH, Cork

This site was excavated in advance of the Glanmire–Watergrasshill bypass, a proposed new section of the N8 roadway. It was located c. 5.5km south-south-west of the village of Watergrasshill, in the townland of Killalough, in a pasture field at the base of a steep-sided glen, on land sloping eastwards towards a south-flowing stream.

On the surface the site appeared as a low grass-covered mound extending over an area c. 20m x 20m. Removal of topsoil revealed a spread of black soil and burnt, shattered stone extending over an area measuring c. 27m north–south x 19m east–west. Subsequent excavation revealed that the material extended to a depth of up to 1m. The site sloped steeply to the east, and along its eastern edge, close to the stream, the burnt mound was covered by a layer of silty mud that had built up over the years as a result of flooding of the stream.

The mound itself was almost entirely homogeneous throughout, consisting of small shattered stone fragments in a black silty matrix, with occasional patches of white ashy material. The mound lay directly on the natural clay subsoil.

Two field drains ran west–east through the site near its southern end, and it was evident that disturbance had taken place along the east edge of the site, close to the stream.

Beneath the mound a low stone wall was uncovered enclosing a horseshoe-shaped area measuring 2.3m east–west x 1.5m north–south, its open end facing east. The stone setting comprised two, and in one section three, courses of roughly quarried sandstone, the lower course of which was set in a channel cut into the subsoil and the others laid directly on top. Some clay survived between the stones, suggesting that clay was used as a bonding agent. All the stones were fractured and brittle from exposure to heat, and some oxidisation of the clay within the stone setting had also occurred, indicating that this was the hearth on which stones were heated before being placed in the trough to heat the water.

Two post-holes were uncovered, one located at each terminal of the stone wall.

A trough was located immediately east of the hearth. Its full original extent could not be ascertained as its eastern end had been truncated by modern drainage work and the construction of an earthen bank along the edge of the stream. The surviving remains comprised a pit measuring 4.6m east–west x c. 1.2m north–south and ranging in depth from 0.25m at its eastern end to 0.65m at its western end. Both the northern and southern sides of the pit had been lined with rubble stone walling, much of which had collapsed into the pit, especially at the western end of the southern side.

Into this pit had been laid a wooden trough similar to a dugout canoe. It had been formed by splitting an oak trunk longitudinally, then hollowing out one half. Unfortunately the trough was damaged by modern drainage work and when uncovered was found to consist of two main sections with two smaller broken pieces. The eastern end of the trough was missing, and the surviving remains would have had a total length of at least 3m, with the hollowed-out section measuring 0.7m wide x c. 0.2m deep. The sides may well have been higher originally and been damaged by modern machinery. Two grooves cut on the underside of the trough at its west end were so located and shaped as to suggest that they might have been used to attach ropes to the trough to drag it along the ground.

A section of the wooden trough submitted to the Palaeoecology Centre at QUB for dendro-chronological dating yielded an estimated felling date range for the tree of 1535±9 years BC.

A sample of charcoal from within the hearth yielded a radiocarbon age BP of 3130±54, calibrated to calendar BC 1409 (UCD-00149). The slightly earlier date for the trough suggests that it may have been reused.

Ballynanelagh, Rathcormac, Co. Cork