2015:328 - Caherkean, Garranes, Cork

Excavation was undertaken in March–April 2015 at this site in the townland of Garranes, Co. Cork. The Caherkean monument is an unclassified earthwork enclosure situated on the lower northern slope of the Garranes ridge, 160m north of the well-known trivallate ringfort of Lisnacaheragh.

The site comprises two sub-parallel earthen banks that widen from the northern end southwards to create a sub-triangular enclosure of approximately 2330m2 in overall area. This earthwork has external dimensions of 65m (north-south) by 24m wide at northern end and 44m wide at southern end, with internal measurements of 54m (north-south) by 2m at northern end and 8m at southern end. It was built on moderately sloping ground, narrowing towards the lower northern end. Both banks have a low external height, averaging 1m or less above the level of the surrounding field. The banks are at their highest at the southern end of the earthwork, where the western bank has an internal height of 4.4m and external height of 2.3m, with the eastern bank having equivalent measurements of 4.7m and 1.7m respectively. At the northern end both banks reduce in internal height to approximately 2m. Both banks turn sharply at the southern end to create a 1.8m wide entrance passage at the south-west corner, from where a track formerly extended west in modern times (landowner information). At the northern end both banks come together to within 2m; however, the original features there have been removed by recent tree-fall damage. This earthwork has the same dimensions, shape and location as a hachured feature labeled ‘Caherkean’ on the 25-inch OS map surveyed in 1901 and published in 1902. The first edition of the OS six-inch survey, surveyed in 1842 and published in 1845 (Cork sheet 84), shows a different structure at the same location, where a dashed line delimits a quadrangular area, measuring 30m (east-west) by 35m, with a 36m long by 9m wide entrance track on the northern side. The 1845 map depicts another enclosed area on the eastern side of the quadrangular enclosure. This is irregularly rectangular is shape, measures 38m (east-west) by 70m, covered by trees and labeled ‘Shanawillen Caherkean’ (‘the old mill of Cian’s Fort’). This second enclosure is not depicted on the OS map of 1902.

There are no surface indications of the site today, nor were any traces uncovered by a recent geophysical survey in that area. Today, this earthwork is overgrown by mature conifer trees that were planted in the 1970s. Excavation revealed that this present earthwork was constructed by digging out a 54m (north–south) by 2–8m area to an average depth of 2–2.5m. Post-excavation profile measurements across the centre of the earthwork indicate the interior was lowered by 2.35m or so, with the soil removed in this way piled into large earthen banks to form the eastern and western sides of the earthwork. With no evidence of external quarry ditches, all of the bank soil is likely to have come from the interior. The lowering of the interior surface also had the effect of accentuating the internal height of the banks, thus augmenting its use as a enclosure. With no evidence of internal revetment, it is likely that both banks began to be eroded soon after construction. Excavation revealed a slow accumulation of silt-based sediments inside the earthwork. These partly derive from slopewash of the bank surfaces, as well as organic sedimentation in the interior. The two main layers of silt had a combined thickness of 0.25–0.5m on top of the primary subsoil cut. These layers contained fragments of vitrified stone and a number of artifacts of early modern date. The occurrence of sherds of white china and brown glazed fine pottery at a depth of 0.21–0.27m above the primary earthwork cut is of particular significance. These pottery finds indicate the earthwork is of relatively recent date, an interpretation confirmed by radiocarbon dating of charcoal from the fill of a linear cut in the primary earthwork cut to 1520–1640 AD. Allowing for ‘old age effect’ in the wood, this result indicates that the present Caherkean earthwork was built in the early modern era, some time during the 18th or early 19th centuries, possibly as an animal pound that was connected to a recorded farm track at the south-west end.