County: Cork Site name: CAPPEEN WEST
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: CO094–06001 & CO094–06002 C332
Author: Tony Miller, Tooreen, Dunmanway, Co. Cork.
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 531323m, N 560557m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.793080, -8.995582
Pre-development testing was carried out on 26 January 2009 in advance of the construction of a dwelling-house within the zone of archaeological potential of a ringfort and a souterrain at Cappeen West, Enniskeane. As this ringfort, known as ^Cahirvagliar’, is a national monument, a visual impact assessment was required before permission was granted by ministerial consent for test excavation. This included consent to use a metal detector on the upcast from the test-trenches (R160).
Eight+ test-trenches were excavated. The stratigraphy varied between the north side of the site, adjacent to the public road, where c. 0.3–0.4m of a grey/brown loamy topsoil overlay a yellow/orange, gravelly boulder clay, and the south side where c. 0.4–0.5m of topsoil overlay a grey/purple, stony boulder clay. The upcast was further investigated with a metal detector. No archaeological features or finds were noted.
