County: Cork Site name: Boulysallagh, Goleen
Sites and Monuments Record No.: None Licence number: 19E0494
Author: Margaret McCarthy, ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONSULTANT
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 481081m, N 528534m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.496911, -9.712780
A test excavation was undertaken in Boulysallagh townland outside Goleen village in West Cork as part of a request for further information from the planning authority. The proposal is for the construction of a residential housing development to include the demolition of a derelict dwelling house in the centre of the site. The site comprises a south-facing rectangular parcel of agricultural land adjacent to the public road where there are extensive views to the south towards the village and beyond to Mizen Head. The nearest recorded archaeological monuments include a church and graveyard (CO147-03601-02) and a burial ground (CO147-037) in Goleen village and an unclassified castle (CO147-038) 600m to the south-east of the development.
In all, eight test trenches were excavated to the level of the natural subsoil. It became clear from an early stage in the testing programme that the entire area proposed for development had previously been disturbed during land reclamation. This had been achieved by stripping the topsoil and introducing a layer of fractured bedrock particularly into the low-lying wet area at the southern end of the development site. The topsoil encountered in all trenches rarely exceeded 0.15m in depth and it had the loose friable consistency of recently made ground. Modern drainage features were also encountered in some of the trenches. No features of archaeological merit were exposed in any of the test trenches.
Rostellan, Midleton, Co. Cork
