County: Cork Site name: Curraheen
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0803
Author: Maurice F. Hurley, 6 Clarence Court, St. Luke’s, Cork.
Site type: Bronze Age enclosure
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 560716m, N 569018m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.871970, -8.570475
A previously unrecorded Bronze Age enclosure was excavated during construction of a gas pipeline from Ballynora to Lehenaghmore, to the west of Cork city. The enclosure was located on low-lying ground (17m OD) at the southern edge of the Lee Valley c. 248m west of a ring-barrow (08E0802, No. 223, above) and c. 229m west of a fulacht fiadh (08E0804, No. 225, below), both sites also excavated as part of the project. The site comprised a penannular enclosing ditch with a 6.3m-wide opening to the east. The 0.9–1.2m-wide ditch was cut into the natural subsoil to a maximum depth of 0.55m and was c. 17.5m in diameter externally and c. 15m internally.
The entrance was defined by two pits containing post sockets. A second pair of post-pits occurred within the enclosure c. 1.4m to the west. It appears likely that the enclosure was a large building of c. 8–10m in diameter, with the weight of the roof supported on a trestle carried on the circle of eight large posts surrounding the central support. The roof may have come down almost to ground level to where the ditch provided drainage. There was no evidence for the foundation of a surrounding wall or even a screen. Several other pits and numerous stake-holes occurred within the enclosure. Many of the stake-holes, frequently at angles towards the large post pits, may have resulted from stakes inserted to prop up the large posts. An alternative interpretation may lie in the multiphase use of the site, where more flimsy structures replaced the large building. No evidence for the occupation surface survived, consequently only the truncated bases of pits, post-holes and the ditch remained. The northern side of the enclosure was more severely truncated than the south.
The remains of an inverted pot were found in the centre of the entrance; only the rim (c. 50mm high) and the base of the ceramic vessel survived. The base lay within the circumference of the rim suggesting that the pot collapsed. The pot is a plain urn type vessel with a minimum rim diameter of 220mm and a base diameter of 100–120mm, and estimated height of 240m. A musket ball was found in topsoil during pre-excavation clearance work at the site.
