County: Cork Site name: Kilmartin Lower
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0488
Author: Margaret McCarthy, Rostellan, Midleton, Co. Cork.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 545455m, N 581707m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.984739, -8.794078
A test excavation was undertaken at Kilmartin Lower, Donoughmore, to fulfil a planning condition prior to approval to construct a single dwelling house. The proposed development is located within the zone of archaeological potential around a ringfort (CO050–063). The monument is shown on the 1842 OS map as a hachured circular enclosure measuring c. 20m in diameter, but no visible surface trace of the enclosure survives. Four test-trenches were opened across the development site. Two trenches were laid out across the footprint of the proposed house and the others were placed along the footprint of the detached garage and the percolation area. The topsoil was removed with a wide toothless bucket to the level of the subsoil. It consisted of friable dark-brown organic sediment and overlay the natural subsoil which was mixed orange/brown clay with occasional small and medium stones. Trenching revealed an undisturbed soil profile and nothing of archaeological importance was uncovered.
