County: Limerick Site name: RATHKEALE: Main Street/Fair Hill
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LI029-031001 Licence number: 04E1519
Author: Deborah Sutton, Sheila Lane & Associates
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 536374m, N 641807m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.523911, -8.937600
Nine test-trenches were excavated on a long narrow site which extended from the Main Street of Rathkeale north to Fair Hill. Topsoil and a light-brown subsoil overlay limestone bedrock in the majority of the trenches. The bedrock traversed the site in east-west ridges varying in depth from 0.18m to 0.65m. A deposit of limestone chips abutting the north face of the limestone ridge in Trench 7 suggests that the rock face had been quarried. Brick fragments recovered from the stone debris indicate a recent date for the quarrying.
It has been recommended that further archaeological testing should take place close to the Main Street street front when extant buildings are demolished.
AE House, Monahan Road, Cork
