County: Cork Site name: CULLEN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 98:37(01) Licence number: 02E0357
Author: Máire Ní Loingsigh, Sheila Lane & Associates
Site type: Ecclesiastical enclosure and Metalworking site
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 523211m, N 596145m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.111861, -9.121107
Testing took place here as part of an application to construct a dwelling-house and associated wastewater treatment unit. The site is between two roads within the north-eastern section of the early ecclesiastical enclosure of Cullen. The intact enclosure is clearly visible on maps of the area and is described as a glebe on the first edition (1844) of the OS 6-inch map.
Six trenches were excavated, averaging 1–1.2m wide and a maximum of 0.7m deep, the depth at which natural material (in this instance stony clay) was encountered.
In five of the trenches the stratigraphy was similar: 0.1m of dark brown topsod over 0.6m of cream/yellow/reddish-brown, gritty, stony clay containing a large amount of stones. Stony subsoil and bedrock were encountered at 0.7m. A large circular piece/lump of metal slag and burnt material, 0.3m in diameter and a maximum of 0.9m thick, was recovered from the featureless stony topsoil. The base of this lump was curved, suggesting that it may be a furnace base.
The stratigraphy in Trench 3 (along the line of the back wall of the proposed dwelling, 7m south of the bank of the ecclesiastical enclosure) consisted of c. 0.25m of featureless topsoil over stony clay, which varied in colour from cream to brown and was 0.1–0.2m thick; the yellow stony clay subsoil was at c. 0.5m. At the northern end of this trench an area of burnt material was exposed in the north baulk, beneath the topsoil, at 0.26m below ground level. The trench was extended to reveal a subcircular pit measuring 1.8m by 1m. The shallow pit (0.16m deep) was cut into the yellow clay subsoil and was filled with burnt soil, stones and a large amount of metal slag, with traces of burnt clay, charcoal and evidence of vitrification. The pit was not excavated. To the north-west of this were three smaller subcircular burnt areas (c. 0.5m in diameter), which were not excavated. These possible pits appeared to be filled with burnt material containing slag, similar to the fill of the large pit.
After testing, the site of the proposed house was moved 5m to the south-west to avoid disturbance of the pits.
During monitoring of groundworks for the construction of the house, a further possible pit, c. 1.2m in diameter, was recorded north-east of the house, directly to the south-west of the previously recorded features. Two further possible furnace bases, similar in size and appearance to the first, were recovered from the disturbed topsoil.
The pits/burnt areas were not excavated as they would not be affected by construction or landscaping work. The features were noted on the site map and covered with a protective membrane before being covered by hardcore and topsoil.
AE House, Monahan Road, Cork
