2000:0421 - BEHAGHANE, Kerry

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Kerry Site name: BEHAGHANE

Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 106:110 Licence number: 00E0739

Author: Máire Ní Loingsigh

Site type: Enclosure

Period/Dating: Undetermined

ITM: E 458045m, N 561055m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.783769, -10.057534

Following the granting of planning permission, ground disturbance work for the construction of a single dwelling-house within an enclosure of unknown date was monitored. The site is located on the southern slopes of Coad Mountain overlooking the Kenmare River to the south.

The majority of the material excavated and removed during the digging of the house foundation trench the associated drainage works and access road consisted of sod and topsoil. Much of the material within the house footprint consisted of glacial deposits of gravel. In the southern part of the house foundation trench, flecks of charcoal were noted in the clay at the excavation limit (c. 1m below ground level). This charcoal may indicate activity associated with the enclosure. The material was not excavated, and the ground level was subsequently raised with gravel and crushed rock to form a level base for the raft foundation.

The bank of the enclosure is formed of natural deposits of gravel. A natural gravel mound to the north-west appears to have been landscaped to form the west and north banks of the enclosure and was possibly hollowed out to form the centre

119 Ashburton, Gardiner’s Hill, Cork