2019:532 - Glanagow , Whitegate, Cork

Irish Water is progressing sewerage schemes at untreated towns/villages in Cork as part of its UTAS programme and to upgrade wastewater treatment facilities at Whitegate and Aghada in Co. Cork. The works are broken into two routes, one at Whitegate which runs north-east and south-west of the village and one route which runs between Aghada and Rostellan.

An archaeological impact assessment report was completed by ACSU Ltd in March 2018. Monitoring of the SI works was recommended along with testing of green-field areas where the scheme is located. Monitoring of the SI works was completed under a separate licence 19E0157.

This summary details the results of test trenching only of the green field areas on the Whitegate scheme. A total of two trenches were excavated. It was not possible to test the entire route of the Outfall Pipe given the route is proposed to run through a densely planted area and along the edge of ground which is for the most part completely disturbed by recent construction activities.

Trench 1 was located at the Waste Water Treatment Plant in tilled ground which had extensive views over White Bay. A Ringfort-Rath (CO088-031), which is no longer visible, was located 70m south-west of the development. At the time of the first edition map in 1842 it was 28m in diameter and was bi-vallate. A field boundary which was visible on the first edition map was located at the centre of Trench 1, however this was not visible in the test trench. The topsoil was 0.58m in depth and the natural ground was a mid-orange brown silty clay.

Test trench 2 was along the location of the proposed outfall and this field was also under tillage. The ground sloped gently to the west towards the bay. The natural ground also varied with boulder clay to the east and bedrock at the western edge.

No finds or features of archaeological significance were exposed in these trenches.

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