2017:662 - Corballis 1, Dublin

The site was located on a south-east facing slope in an undulating landscape with panoramic views to the south, east and west. The area of Donabate is located on a peninsula on the north Dublin coast with the sea on three sides. The coastline is c. 1.5km to the east while the tidal estuary is less than 1km to the south. The surrounding landscape comprises fields bounded by hedgerows. Most are under a variety of crops though with some pasture and small scale forestry.
The ring-ditch, c. 10.5m in maximum external diameter, had a narrow undug entrance to the south-west and another possible entrance represented by a causeway, c. 0.25m below the top of the cut, in the eastern arc. The ditch measured 1.4-1.5m in width and 0.6-0.7m in depth. Scattered burnt and unburnt human and animal bone fragments throughout the charcoal-stained upper fills of the ring-ditch represent token burials. Two burnt bone beads, a small glass bead and several small fragmentary copper-alloy pieces were also retrieved and appear to represent the remains of personal adornments deposited with the cremation material. No other archaeological features were identified in or around the ring-ditch. A piece of ash (fraxinus) charcoal from one of the lower deposits, C20, returned a date of 20-210 cal AD (95% 2ẟ).
The upper ditch deposits, C04, 07 & 09, were primarily dark sandy silts with frequent charcoal and occasional burnt bone inclusions and filled a series of recuts made in the earlier ditch fills. This shows multi-phase use of the monument. The deposits comprising the earlier fills, C11 & 12, were similar to the surrounding natural subsoil and may represent a bank or mound from the original construction of the ring-ditch that had been deliberately back-filled in a single event. The fill C.20 appeared as a thin lens, maximum 0.06m in depth, within C12 in the western arc of the ring-ditch.

Archer Heritage Planning, 8 Beat Centre, Stephenstown, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.