County: Cork Site name: Vicarstown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO062-098 Licence number: 19E0630
Author: Alan Hawkes (Hawkes Archaeological Services)
Site type: Test-trenching
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 553942m, N 577787m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.950265, -8.670019
A programme of archaeological test-trenching was carried out as part of pre-planning for a proposed private dwelling house in the townland of Vicarstown, Co. Cork
The proposed site takes up approx. 0.2 hectares, the south-western extent of which borders a levelled ringfort that is incorporated within the field boundary on the west side of the proposed development. This field boundary is now no longer extant, being levelled sometime in the recent past and replaced by a timber post and wire fence running north-south from the present road.
A total of six trenches were excavated across the development site. One trench (Trench 1) was excavated across the eastern extent of the levelled ringfort to investigate the presence (or not) of a second enclosing ditch recorded by Hartnett during the 1930s. The outer extent of the ringfort needed to be established to create an appropriate buffer zone for the proposed development.
The other test-trenches (2-6) were excavated across the footprint of the proposed house and driveway. The most significant feature identified during testing was the ringfort ditch (F1) recorded in Trench 1. Other potential features comprised lines of dark silty soil within the natural orange subsoil. Partial excavation of some suggests they are likely related to early modern ridge and furrow cultivation or land drainage. These agricultural features are not considered to be of archaeological significance. No artefacts were recovered from any of the trenches. Two sherds of pottery were recovered in the disturbed soil around the modern post-and-wire filed fence close to Trench 1. These are unstratified and are post-medieval/early modern in date.
'Melrose' 5 Palmbury, Togher, Cork
