County: Cork Site name: CALLAS
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E1195
Author: Margaret McCarthy, Archaeological Services Unit, University College Cork
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 553159m, N 576165m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.935623, -8.681185
An application to construct a single residential house between two ringforts at Callas, Berrings, Co. Cork, became the subject of a planning condition that required monitoring prior to development. The site is on an east-facing slope c. 1.5 miles to the east of Berrings village in the Lee Valley. A substantial ringfort survives to the north-west of the house site behind a farmyard. The other ringfort was levelled some time ago but there is a slight rise visible in the area where the monument originally stood.
The topsoil consisted of heavy dark brown clayey silt, which varied in depth from 0.35m at the eastern end of the site to c. 0.2m at the western end. This overlay orange brown stony boulder clay. No archaeological features or finds were noted on the exposed surface. Trenching in the percolation area also revealed an undisturbed soil profile similar to that observed in the area of the house and the driveway.
The landowner complied with the planning conditions relating to the archaeological landscape. All areas of the development were investigated to a level below the natural boulder clay and no features or finds of archaeological significance were noted.
