County: Cork Site name: Clonakilty FSS, River Fealge
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO135-145, CO135-146, CO135-147, CO135-052001-, CO135-132---- Licence number: 17E0420
Author: Bruce Sutton of Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd
Site type: Monitoring - Various
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 538436m, N 541556m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.623114, -8.889137
Monitoring was undertaken at numerous locations in the townlands of Desert, Scartagh, Youghals, Maulnaskeny, Tawnies Upper and Tawnies Lower, Miles, Kilgarriff, Ballyduvane, Ballyvackey and Cloheen, as part of the Public Realm infrastructure works relating to the River Fealge (Clonakilty) Drainage Scheme. These works were undertaken on behalf of Ward & Burke Construction Ltd. between May 2018 and July 2021. A metal detector was also used as part of the monitoring works, under detection licence 17R0205.
Archaeological monitoring of the groundworks and demolition identified and recorded the remains of the following:
• A continuation of the quay wall along the line of Deasy’s shipyard, but no remains of the 19th-century shipyard itself.
• A cobbled surface on Kent Street, at the location of the fish market visible on the 1st and 2nd edition historical mapping
• A short section of surviving wall element of the fish market
• The remains of an earth-cut mill race in Tawnies Lower townland, visible on the 1st and 2nd edition historical mapping
• The remains of four heavily disturbed burnt mounds. The shallow and patchy nature of the burnt spreads further suggests that the archaeological deposits had been badly disturbed by frequent agricultural activity. A rectangular stone-lined trough, excavated in two phases, was identified under the Area C mound.
Radiocarbon dating results obtained during the excavation showed an extended period of activity at the site in the Early-to-Middle Bronze Age, from 1744-1619 cal BC (3380±27 BP; SUERC-95394) to 1623-1503 cal BC (3285±27 BP; SUERC-95395). No further finds or other cultural materials were identified or retrieved during the excavation.
Unit 2, Europa Business Park, Midleton, Co. Cork, P25 TV25
