2007:AD7 - Ballinglanna North 4, Cork

Phase 2 excavation works were undertaken, on behalf of Cork County Council, along the route of the N8 Fermoy–Mitchelstown bypass. The proposed bypass involves the construction of c. 16km of dual carriageway extending from Gortore north of Fermoy to Carrigane north-east of Mitchelstown. A programme of advance testing (Phase 1) had been carried out in October 2005, the results of which appeared in Excavations 2005.
The site at Ballinglanna North 4 is located c. 40m west of the Glencorra Stream. The site comprised four main groups of archaeological activity: a fire pit, burnt areas, furrows and field boundaries.
A large fire pit was 1.03m long, 0.74m wide and 0.33m deep and contained a single fill with burnt-stone inclusions. It was situated on level terrain. Other evidence for burning in the area comprised several irregular patches of burning which contained large amounts of charcoal. These contexts were interpreted as the result of clearance fires used to prepare the land for new agricultural purposes. Three parallel lines of north–south-running furrows were also found. They were not spade dug and they were interpreted as plough furrows. Six linear features criss-crossed the site; three ran north–south and three ran east–west. Finds from the fills indicated a post-medieval date, probably 19th century. All the linear features ran parallel to existing field boundaries and some correlated with field boundaries shown on the first-edition OS maps. They were all interpreted as removed field boundaries. This indicates that field sizes changed over time.