County: Cork Site name: Killamurren
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO053–029–01 Licence number: 10E0403
Author: Eamonn Cotter, Ballynanelagh, Rathcormac, Co. Cork.
Site type: Ecclesiastical enclosure
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 581786m, N 585788m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.023803, -8.265397
This site is recorded as a possible early ecclesiastical enclosure (CO053–029–01). It is depicted on the 1840 first-edition 6-inch OS map as an oval enclosure approximately 60m x 50m in extent, incorporating a ‘grave yard’ and ‘(site of) Killamurren Church’. An adjacent farmyard immediately to the north had already truncated the northern end of the site by that time and the expansion of the farmyard over the 20th century gradually encroached on the enclosure over many years, as can be seen from the OS maps. As a result, less than 10% of the original enclosure now survives.
An assessment of the site was required on foot of a planning application for a further extension of the farm buildings. As part of that assessment, test-trenches were excavated to establish the surviving extent of the site.
Three test-trenches were excavated through a mound of modern soil and rubble, to the old topsoil layer. No excavation was carried out below this layer, the excavation comprising of the removal of modern material only, so as to establish the extent of surviving archaeological remains. No archaeological features or artefacts were noted.
