County: Offaly Site name: CUBA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 21:6 Licence number: 00E0677
Author: Dominic Delany
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 601756m, N 715615m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.190990, -7.973717
Test excavation was carried out on 16 September 2000, in compliance with the archaeological requirements as specified by Dúchas The Heritage Service following an impact assessment report prepared in response to a request for further information from Offaly County Council. The proposed development site contains two recorded monuments, SMR 21:6 (enclosure site) and SMR 21:8 (house site). The Archaeological inventory of County Offaly (OPW, 1997) records ‘Cuba Court’ as a splendid early 18th-century house, which became a school in the early 19th century. It is also recorded that the site has been completely bulldozed since the house was last recorded in 1976.
The enclosure site lies c. 50m south-west of the house. It was identified from aerial photography and appears as a large oval enclosure (c. 60m in diameter, east–west). A raised platform indicates the site of the house, but there are no visible surface traces of the enclosure site. Dúchas recommended revision of site layout to ensure complete avoidance of the house site and further recommended that archaeological testing be carried out in the area of the possible enclosure.
Testing comprised the mechanical excavation of three trenches (35–65m long) on the site of the possible enclosure. A ditch feature, 3–4m wide, clearly representing the enclosure site, was discovered in Trenches 1 and 3. It was not discovered in Trench 2, but this appears to be a result of ground disturbance associated with the insertion of a large soakhole/percolation area. The ditch was filled with a series of mixed light yellowish-brown and greyish-brown, silty sand deposits. Finds from the base of the ditch comprised several pieces of roof slate, mortar and red brick, a green glass bottle fragment and two small sherds of red earthenware pottery with all-over light brown glaze. The finds suggest that the ditch is contemporary with the house, and it seems likely that it formed part of a landscape garden feature.
It was recommended that a condition requiring monitoring of topsoil removal should be attached to any grant of planning for this site.
31 Ashbrook, Oranmore, Co. Galway
