County: Cork Site name: CASTLEWIDENHAM
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO026-088---- Licence number: 03E0801
Author: Máire Ní Loingsigh, Sheila Lane & Associates
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 567971m, N 601936m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.168315, -8.468208
Test-trenches were excavated at the site of a levelled ringfort to the south-west of Castletownroche village. It is proposed to build 33 houses in the vicinity of the monument. There was no visible trace of the monument, which was shown on the third edition of the OS and was visible as a cropmark in an aerial photo.
Two perpendicular trenches were excavated across the presumed location of the monument. Evidence for a ditch was found, indicating a subcircular enclosure measuring c. 34m north-west/south-east by c. 30m. The ditch was filled with topsoil and was c. 7m wide and a maximum of 1m deep. The presence of a second cut feature in the north-western quadrant of the ringfort, possibly an outer ditch, may be indicated by a 2m-wide unexcavated band of dark-brown soil c. 8.5m outside the ditch. Areas of dark-brown soil with evidence of burning were noted in the interior of the ringfort; these were not fully exposed and were not excavated.
AE House, Monahan Road, Cork
