County: Cork Site name: N22 Baile Bhuirne to Macroom, Coolavokig 2
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: E004934
Author: Siobhan McNamara, TVAS (Ireland) Ltd
Site type: Burnt stone spread and a trough
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 524426m, N 574907m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.921156, -9.098695
Coolavokig 2 was located on the proposed N22 Baile Bhuirne to Macroom Road Project (Lot 2). The site lay adjacent to a mechanically-rectified stream on the lower slopes of a steep hillside.
The excavation revealed evidence of at least four phases of activity, consisting of two phases of use of the site followed by abandonment and then more recent disturbance. Excavation also revealed the original course of the stream prior to its realignment. The earliest material on site was a large burnt stone mound that directly overlay the natural subsoil, including in crevices between large protruding boulders, suggesting a lack of topsoil cover at the time the site was in use. The mound sat in a curve in the original stream channel and covered an area of approximately 18m by 12m, extending beyond the CPO for the road development into the adjacent field to the south. The mound was up to 0.78m deep, although it had been severely truncated.
Cut into the highest part of the mound was a large oval pit or trough that measured 2.9m by 1.91m and was 0.51m deep with steeply sloping sides and a fairly flat base. Although the feature had the appearance of a trough it did not contain burnt stone material, but instead was lined with numerous small flat stones and filled with fairly sterile silty clay. The function of this feature remains unclear.
Lapping over the edges of the mound were a number of alluvial deposits relating to flooding from the original stream channel after the site went out of use. These were all sealed by numerous redeposited burnt stone layers, apparently the original top of the mound had been levelled when the stream was re-routed and the resulting mixed topsoil and burnt stone deposits were spread across the outer edges of the mound to create the level modern ground surface seen prior to excavation. Cartographic evidence suggests some realignment of the stream in the late 19th century and the field was again modified by hand within living memory and again by machine in the 1990s.
Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare
