2014:456 - CARRIGALINE WEST (1-3), Cork

Three small sites were excavated in Carrigaline West as part of advanced archaeological works for the proposed Carrigaline Western Relief Road. Previous testing (13E0006) by Ken Hanley of Cork Road Design Office identified five archaeological sites along the scheme. Carrigaline West 1 survived as a badly preserved, dumb-bell shaped cereal-drying kiln truncated by later drains and furrows. A tree bole which pre-dated drain F103 and an isolated stone drain were also recorded. A date of AD 988-1147 (D-AMS 010565; 1001±22 BP) was returned from seeds from the drying chamber in the kiln. A sample of ash charcoal from the fire pit returned a date of AD 893-1014 (D-AMS 010564; 1089±26 BP). A sample of pomoideae charcoal collected from a charcoal deposit displaced from the kiln was dated to AD 901-1025 (D-AMS 010566; 1052±26 BP).

The charcoal assemblage from the kiln was dominated by hazel and scrubland taxa with smaller quantities of oak, ash and elm, indicating that the contemporary landscape was an area of open farmland. Large quantities of seeds were also identified in samples collected from the kiln. This assemblage was dominated by oat.

Carrigaline West 2 was an isolated potential hearth (or possibly root burning/scrub clearance), and an assortment of early modern furrows and drains. The edge of a late 18th- or early 19th-century millrace was also identified.

Carrigaline West 3 survived as shallow spreads and pits containing burnt stone probably reflecting Bronze Age activity and further deposits of oxidised clay and charcoal the date and nature of which were unclear. Charcoal collected from one of the pits with burnt mound material was dated to the late Bronze Age (1108-925 BC; 2847±27 BP; D-AMS 010567).