County: Cork Site name: Garranes
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO084-085 Licence number: 17E083
Author: William O'Brien
Site type: Ringfort
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 547455m, N 563773m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.823728, -8.762245
In April 2017, excavation was undertaken for research and training purposes at a ringfort-type enclosure in Garranes townland, parish of Templemartin, Co. Cork. This earthwork had been substantially levelled by farming practices in the modern era, with the site ploughed again in recent years for use as pasture. The outline of a large sub-circular enclosure is visible as a low-relief feature in the centre of a small triangular field. The full extent of the enclosure was recorded by geophysical survey (magnetic gradiometry). This survey revealed traces of a univallate (bank-and-ditch) enclosure, consistent with the depiction of this monument as a hachured feature in the historic mapping of the Ordnance Survey.
Excavation of a single trench on the north-east side of the enclosure exposed the base of the original bank, with a large infilled ditch outside it. Samples of charcoal were recovered for radiocarbon dating from the pre-bank surface (results pending). No artifact finds or other dating information were recovered from this small trench. The site of a 'souterrain' recorded on the 1943 Ordnance Survey, was not located by the geophysical survey or archaeological excavation.
Department of Archaeology, University College Cork
