County: Cork Site name: BALLYVINITER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO033-139---- Licence number: 02E0777
Author: Margaret McCarthy, Archaeological Services Unit, University College Cork
Site type: Industrial site
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 556450m, N 600151m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.151483, -8.636386
Excavation was undertaken within a housing development at Ballyviniter on the outskirts of Mallow. The site appeared, on first inspection, to represent a fulacht fiadh, but the depth and extent of the deposits and the nature of the excavated features make this initial interpretation unlikely.
Industrial activity appeared to have been carried out at the southern end of the site; this consisted of a semicircular area of oxidised subsoil into which a linear trench and a number of pits and post-holes were dug. The linear trench was filled with two distinct layers of heat-shattered stone and grey marl and it led into a dried-up streambed. Little interpretation can be offered for the pits and post-holes surrounding the terminus to the trench. Three substantial post-holes were positioned in such a way as to suggest they supported some type of wooden structure. The other pits appeared too shallow to have been structural in function and the fills consisted of a homogenous dark soil with burnt stone. An artificial pond to the north-east of the area of industrial activity seemed to have been dug to provide a ready supply of water. The similarity of the upper fills in the backfilled pond to the deposits in the industrial area indicated that both features were contemporary.
The excavation did not produce any evidence to provide either a date or a function for the site, although the indications are that it is not connected to domestic activity. The stones from all the features were subjected to intense heat, possibly from some industrial process. The area is known locally as ‘The Iron Mines’, but there was no evidence from the excavations for residues associated with ironworking. The composition of the basal fills in the pond indicated that the industrial activity, whatever its nature, required an immediate supply of water. Radiocarbon samples have been submitted for dating and the results of this analysis will place the monument in a chronological period that may facilitate an interpretation of the site.
