County: Cork Site name: Aghada/Cuskinny
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E071; 10D009; 10R024
Author: Rex Bangerter, The Archaeological Diving Company Ltd, Brehon House, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: Intertidal foreshore; no archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 585597m, N 564993m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.836983, -8.208996
Monitoring took place of the machine-excavation of a series of V-shaped trenches, placed across the intertidal zone, at two landfall locations. These trenches were excavated to accommodate four 220kV XLPE power cables that are to form a submarine cable running between Aghada Power Station and Cuskinny Bay.
Aghada landfall, a series of four, c. 60m-long, V-shaped trenches were machine excavated across the foreshore at Aghada. The intertidal zone at this location is extensively composed of shelving bedrock (shale/mudstone composition) and therefore does not provide an archaeological holding content. The excavation of the subsurface limit of the cable trench, c. 20m length of trench located between NGR 184123 650234 and NGR 184124 650377, was monitored. The excavated material comprised a sterile blue/grey silty clay (c. 60%/40% mix), with occasional angular gravel inclusions, that overlies the bedrock at this location. No archaeologically significant material was encountered as part of the excavation of the four cable trenches at the Aghada landfall site.
Cuskinny landfall, a series of four, c. 80m-long, V-shaped trenches were machine excavated across the foreshore at Cuskinny Bay, between NGR: 181014 673364 and NGR: 181774 672914. The foreshore at this location is composed of a shingle deposit (1m+ depth) overlying a blue/grey silty clay, c. 60%/40% mix. The shingle beach comprises angular to sub-rounded rocks and pebbles of limestone and shale composition. Modern material was occasionally encountered within this deposit; this material included red-brick fragments, miscellaneous fragments of cut timber, an iron pipe flange, and various car parts including an exhaust section. The shingle deposit measures 1.2m along the high-water mark, decreasing to c. 0.45m in depth at the Low Water mark. Where the shingle was less than 1m in depth, the underlying silty clay was impacted by the trench excavation. This deposit was sterile of any manmade debris.
No material, deposits, or structures of archaeological significance were encountered as part of the monitoring process at either landfall location.
