County: Cork Site name: BOWLING GREEN, Mallow
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 33:93(08) Licence number: 02E1590
Author: Jacinta Kiely, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Kiln - lime
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 555722m, N 598838m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.139624, -8.646852
An assessment was undertaken at Bowling Green, Mallow. Planning permission was granted by Mallow Urban District Council for five blocks of apartments, with basement parking. The site is to the north of the zone of archaeological potential of Mallow town. A ruined limestone building stands in the northern corner of the development site. The site is marked on the first-edition OS 6-inch map as a cruciform structure, ‘site of RC Chapel’, and on the second edition as a ‘lime kiln’. A disused quarry lies to the south of the development site.
Test-trenches were opened by machine on the footprint of the foundations of each of the five blocks. Grey clay was recorded in each trench. The clay was removed to a depth of 2m in a number of places. It was modern fill. The base of the clay was not recorded in any of the trenches.
The western end of the limestone building had been damaged. Cleaning and recording the wall illustrated that the building was a large limekiln. It measured 7m north–south by 13.7m externally and was divided centrally by a limestone wall. The walls were built of randomly coursed, mortared limestone. The external walls were c. 0.65m wide. Vegetation growth and a modern garage masked the eastern end of the building. A ruined embrasure, c. 3m by 3m, was centrally placed in the west wall, with a second ruined embrasure, c. 1.8m by 1.4m, in the north wall. The flue in the western section of the limekiln had a diameter of 2.8m. It was built of a single course of limestone and was c. 0.25–0.3m thick. The internal face was coated with lime. The fill between the flue and the walls was scorched.
A trench was opened at the western end of the southern wall. The top of a brick arch was recorded at a depth of c. 1.7m below road level. This indicated that the ground level in the area of the limekiln had been raised by c. 4m.
It is likely that the building was a double limekiln with the arched entrance to the flues in the southern wall. The building was c. 9–10m high. The only embrasures visible were on the upper section of the building, on the western and northern walls.
3 Canal Place, Tralee, Co. Kerry
