2008:591 - Ballyoughteragh South, Kerry

An application to Kerry County Council to construct a wintering pad and lagoon close to the shoreline in Ferriter’s Cove, Dingle, led to a request from An Bord Pleanála for an archaeological test excavation to be carried out. The proposed development is located just outside the designated zone of archaeological potential around an extensive shell midden (KE042–035) that has produced evidence for Late Mesolithic settlement. The development site is situated in a low-lying area adjacent to the shoreline and surrounded to the north, south and east by high sand dunes. The entire field is covered in a dune system, which extends eastwards as far as and beyond the public road leading to the village of Ballyoughteragh. The site of the Late Mesolithic shell midden is located 100m to the south-west of the wintering pad and the original wave-cut platform is now considerably eroded as much of the cliff face has fallen into the sea. The first record of shell middens in Ferriter’s Cove was made in 1975, when the former Professor of Geology at University College Cork noted their presence in section along the cliff-face for a distance of over 100m. The largest concentration of shells was exposed on a wave-cut platform beneath a series of deep sand dunes and a flint knife was recovered from the section in 1975. Subsequent excavations by Peter Woodman, former Professor of Archaeology in University College Cork, between 1982 and 1995 revealed evidence for transitory settlement in the form of pits, hearths and large quantities of occupation debris. The excavations also yielded evidence of stone-tool manufacture, for which the main raw material was a series of rhyolites and volcanic ashes, which outcrop several kilometres south of Ferriter’s Cove near Dún Chaoin.
As part of the development, it was intended to create a 3m-high mound around the perimeter of the site. The mound will be constructed with sandy soil from the excavation of the lagoon and the top of the mound will be planted with marram grass, which thrives locally. The entrance will be concealed and will be located along the northern perimeter of the site. Two long test-trenches were opened at right angles to each other across the footprint of the proposed lagoon and wintering pad. The location of the trenches was very much determined by the height of the surviving sand dunes, as health and safety constraints did not allow for excavation in those areas where the risk of collapse of high mounds of unconsolidated sand was high. Trench 1 measured 42m in length and was excavated to a maximum depth of 2.3m. The topsoil consisted of very friable black sediment, which overlay a deep layer of unconsolidated sand. The average depth of the sand was 1.8m and it reached a maximum depth of 2.1m at the eastern end of the trench. The underlying subsoil consisted of mixed orange/brown fractured boulder clay. No in situ midden deposits or other features and finds of archaeological importance were uncovered in the trench. Trench 2 was placed at the western limit of the proposed development some 90m from the edge of the shoreline and the Late Mesolithic shell midden. It was oriented north-west/south-east and measured 30m in length. It shared an identical soil profile to that encountered in Trench 1 and was excavated to a maximum depth of 2.4m. Trenching revealed that nothing of archaeological significance was present in the excavated area.