2014:077 - DROMDERRIG, Cork

Test trenching and a metal detector survey (14R0080) were undertaken on the footprint of a proposed dwelling house, driveway and ancillary services in tillage farmland on the south-west outskirts of Kinsale town. The nearest recorded archaeological monument to the proposed development area is a low mound (CO112-089—-) located 220m to the west. This barely perceptible mound is within a tillage field and has been identified as the potential location of an observation post during the 1601 siege of the town. A manual investigation of the recorded ‘hits’ during the metal detector survey of the development footprint uncovered occasional modern agricultural iron objects (e.g. staples, nails, brackets). These metallic objects were dispersed across the proposed development site in a similar pattern to the post-medieval and modern pottery sherds noted on the surface of the plough soil. The ubiquity and dispersal pattern of these inclusions was indicative of the mechanical spread of farmyard manure heaps that had accrued inclusions of rubbish material. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted during test trenching.