County: Cork Site name: BRIGOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO019-165---- Licence number: 03E1153
Author: Miriam Carroll, John Purcell Archaeological Consultancy
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 582327m, N 612004m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.259458, -8.258877
Several archaeological features were uncovered during earlier testing of a housing development at Brigown, Mitchelstown. An area measuring 35m (north–south) by 20m was subsequently excavated over a four-week period. A large curving ditch (C5 and C8) comprised the main feature on the site and is likely to represent the partial remains of an enclosure. It was exposed for a length of c. 34m and curved from the south-east to the north. It measured c. 2.3m in width and varied in depth from 0.5 to 1.5m. It extended outside the area of excavation in a north-north-east direction; however, a terminus to the ditch was located at the south-east end of the site. A possible palisade trench was located in the southern half of the site, immediately east of the enclosing ditch (C5). This trench followed the curve of the ditch and may be contemporary with the latter. A large quantity of metal slag was recovered from the ditch fills at the north end of the site. Several small pits and linear features, located both inside and outside the ditch at this end of the site, also contained slag and charcoal. This material may be indicative of some form of metalworking activity, either within or adjacent to the enclosure. No datable finds were recovered from the ditch or palisade trench which would suggest a period of use for the site.
A large linear ditch (C48) extended across the centre of the site in an east–west direction, cutting through the enclosing ditch (C5 and C8). It was exposed for a length of c. 20m and measured 3.5m in width and 1.33m in depth. Although it is clear that this ditch post-dates the enclosure, no finds were recovered which would indicate its precise date.
No evidence for a bank or levelled bank material was uncovered during the excavation. The first-edition OS map for the area, however, depicts a curving field boundary in the general location of the excavation. It is possible that the field boundary may represent the original bank of the enclosure and that the excavated ditch is the only remaining element of an enclosure which was levelled in the late 19th or early 20th century.
17 Balmoral Terrace, Dillon’s Cross, Cork
