County: Cork Site name: BARRAFOHONA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 09E0207
Author: Nikolah Gilligan, Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 588661m, N 586122m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.026987, -8.165225
Excavation of Site 25.1 in Barrafohona townland, Co. Cork, was carried out for Bord G$is !ireann. The site was identified during monitoring by Bernice Molloy of topsoil-stripping along the corridor of the Curraleigh West to Midleton pipeline scheme between March and May 2009. Site 25.1 was subsequently excavated in May 2009.
The site consisted of two areas of activity. Area 1, the northernmost section, comprised twelve pits, five post-holes, two stake-holes and a slot trench. Three of the pits contained slag and two showed evidence of in situ burning while one contained fragments of medieval pottery. The post-and stake-holes did not form any obvious structural plan. Such sites date generally to the medieval period and are associated with small-scale metalworking activity.
Area 2 consisted of two pits and a single stake-hole. Charcoal fragments and burnt bone were contained within the pits. It is probable that these features were related to the pits in Area 1 and that the cremated bones are animal bones.
Specialist analysis is ongoing and it is expected that the final report will be completed in 2010.
