2006:305 - Coomacheo/Curracahill, Cork

It was proposed to construct a wind farm in the townlands of Coomacheo and Curracahill, Millstreet, Co. Cork, at an altitude of c. 400–450m (1200–1350ft). Planning permission was granted for seventeen wind turbines and pre-development testing was required as a condition of planning. A licence was granted for a methodology whereby the engineering and archaeological testing would be undertaken as a combined project.
Access to the site was via the very steep-sided valley of the River Clydagh or Chlaoideach. The site was a boggy plateau, part of which has been planted with coniferous trees. From the outset it became apparent that access for conventional excavation machinery would be impossible and excavation of conventional archaeological test-trenches would be of no avail in the unstable, almost fluid conditions of the bog. (The wetness of the bog was compounded by a period of rainy weather.) As the bog deposits were deep (2.4–3.5m), waterlogged and difficult to access, it was obvious that a unique strategy was necessary; consequently, solutions adapted by the Archaeology Wetland Unit were consulted. Of particular relevance were documents such as Guidelines for the Testing and Mitigation of the Wetland Archaeological Heritage, compiled by the National Roads Authority.
The most practical approach was the use of an auger on a specially adapted trax machine (with this machine it was possible to excavate an auger sample from the site of each turbine and the proposed sub-station site). On-site examination of each extracted layer was possible without danger of trench collapse. This method also made possible excavation of inaccessible areas and at depths where conventional excavation of trenches would be dangerous or impossible. By this method all areas subject to impact by the proposed development were investigated.
A total of nineteen augered boreholes were undertaken and the sample from each auger was removed and examined on site. Samples were retained from each level for further off-site analysis. Each borehole was 150mm in diameter, excavated to c. 5m in depth.
No finds or features of archaeological importance were found in the course of the testing. The general indication is of a site that had developed as upland bog over several centuries, although it was not possible to precisely identify the rate of growth of the upland peat. No internal stratification was apparent in the soft spongy peat and there was no indication of a soil horizon or man-made feature beneath the peat; i.e. in all cases the peat overlay a natural gritty silt subsoil, which in turn overlay sandstone rock. There was no reason to believe that this upland area was ever subject to human occupation or exploitation.