County: Cork Site name: CARRIGROHANE 3
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0431
Author: Ed Danaher, ACS Ltd.
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 561087m, N 570600m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.886213, -8.565267
This site was found during monitoring for the N22 Ballincollig Bypass programme. Three possible Bronze Age pits were uncovered c. 0.4m below the sod. An area measuring 20m east–west by 10m was cleaned back. The site was c. 100m south-west of a possible Beaker cremation pit (No. 254, Excavations 2002, 02E0890) and c. 150m north-west of a fulacht fiadh excavated by Donald Murphy, Carrigrohane 1 (Excavations 2001, No. 137, 01E0444).
Two of the three pits were relatively close to each other, while the third was c. 9m west of these; all were cut into the boulder clay. The former two pits were very similar in form and contained comparable fills. The larger, which was also the easternmost of the three, was oriented east–west, measuring 0.97m by 0.73m and with a maximum depth of 0.33m. Although it contained a charcoal-stained and heat-shattered stone fill, there was no evidence to suggest that it functioned as a hearth. Nor does it seem likely that water was boiled within it. No evidence of a hearth was present on-site, but, as all three pits were close to the road-take, it may have been sited north of these features. The fill of this pit was a loose, dark brown, silty clay containing c. 40% heat-shattered stones, mainly limestone and sandstone, with the occasional inclusion of quartz, all of which had diameters of less than 0.14m. Other inclusions were a moderate amount of charcoal flecks and occasional fragments of burnt bone.
Positioned just under 2m to the west was a subcircular pit, oriented north–south, measuring 0.68m by 0.58m and with a depth of 0.24m. It was very similar to Pit 1 and contained a similar fill.
The westernmost of the pits was oriented north–south, measuring 0.6m by 0.4m and with a depth of 0.1m. It was elliptical and differed from the other pits both in content and in form. This feature appeared to be the basal remains of a pit, with the upper portions having been truncated before development works. It contained a loose, dark brown, clayey silt, with occasional charcoal flecks, sherds of prehistoric pottery, flint and chert debitage, and a stone axe.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
