County: Cork Site name: CLASHADUNNA EAST
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0728
Author: Daniel Noonan, for Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Fulacht fia
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 607702m, N 577431m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.948915, -7.887955
During the monitoring of topsoil removal at the Old Killeagh Road realignment the damaged remains of a fulacht fiadh (AR29) were excavated within an area measuring 13m east–west by 8m. A single, oval-shaped trough, 2.3m east–west by 1.9m and 0.55m deep, was uncovered when the disturbed remains of a burnt spread were removed. Three circular stake-holes cut the base of the trough. There was no other evidence for a lining of either stone or wood in the trough, tentatively indicating an early date sometime in the Bronze Age. The small size of the single trough uncovered, coupled with the lack of identifiable variation in the surviving burnt mound material and trough fill, would tentatively indicate that activity at this site was carried out over a short period. Two post-medieval field ditches truncated the spread. A carbon sample recovered from the fill of the trough produced a 2-sigma calibration date of cal. BC 1410–1120 (cal. BP 3360–3070).
The site at Clashadunna East was one of three fulachta fiadh sites, of varying sizes and levels of preservation, which were excavated as part of this scheme. On a macro-level these sites, along with the excavation of a possible Bronze Age unenclosed settlement as part of this scheme at Ballyvergan West (Excavations 2001, No. 119) and an analysis of the entries in the Archaeological Inventory for both Cork and Waterford, present a Bronze Age landscape around Youghal into which the findings at Clashadunna East can be incorporated.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
