County: Cork Site name: Ballyroe
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 22E0378
Author: Gill McLoughlin
Site type: Pits, unknown date
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 552712m, N 617153m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.303989, -8.693381
Archaeological testing was carried out on 7–8 June 2022, in relation to a proposed substation and underground cable to Charleville substation as part of a permitted solar PV farm development at Ballyroe, County Cork. The substation and underground cable construction is a Strategic Infrastructure Development (SID) at the pre-application stage of planning. The proposed development site is located in Ballyroe townland, approximately 5km south of Charleville town, 580m west of the L5529 local road, and 1.5km west of the N20 main Cork to Limerick Road.
The archaeological testing followed a geophysical survey of the area, and the test trenches were placed to investigate potential archaeological features highlighted in the areas of the proposed substation and along the proposed cable route.
In most of the test trenches linear features were identified that correspond with anomalies in the geophysical survey. In some cases, it was clear that these features were modern and in other cases there were no inclusions within the fills to suggest they were of archaeological interest. Trench 3 was the exception to this, where four pits containing charcoal and burnt bone appear to be of archaeological interest and are likely to represent habitation activity associated with a circular ditched enclosure to the south which was identified in the geophysical survey.
c/o Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy, Lynwood House, Ballinteer Road, Dublin 16
