2022:397 - MITCHELSTOWN: Brigown Road, Cork

The client, Mike Lyons Building Contractor Ltd, on behalf of Cork County Council, undertook excavation of silt trenches at a greenfield location to inspect the nature and extent of Japanese knotweed, as preliminary works to a future development of 8 houses. After a conversation with the County Council’s agent, John Lee of Malachy Walsh and Partners, it was arranged that archaeological monitoring of the silt trenches be undertaken under archaeological licence, which took place on 8 and 9 August 2022.

In all, 26 trenches were excavated within the four site corners (at north, east, south and west) using a mini-digger with back-acting bucket. The trenches were up to 0.4m in width, varied in depth to between 0.4 and 1.6m and were of 1.4 to 17m in length. The general stratigraphy was that of 0.25–0.3m topsoil over underlying natural subsoil of pale yellow brown silty sand or compact red brown sandy clay. Both subsoils retained decayed and undecayed stone inclusions.

No archaeology was encountered.