County: Waterford Site name: Crobally Upper
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 23E0360
Author: Alan Hawkes (for Maurice F. Hurley)
Site type: Habitation
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 658394m, N 602146m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.168044, -7.146382
An archaeological excavation was conducted within a new phase of house building known as ‘White Wave’, an additional phase of the development on a hillside overlooking Tramore Bay. Nine test-trenches were excavated across the site by Dave Pollock (Licence 23E0360). Two areas of potential archaeological interest were identified (Areas A and B), and he recommended further investigation of the two potential archaeological features.
Archaeological investigation by Alan Hawkes confirmed that the dark spread of material uncovered in Area B was a linear pit filled with a black humic silt and stone – possibly a land drain. Area A was re-opened and found to contain a number of prehistoric pits and stake-holes. Fragmentary pottery and radiocarbon evidence places the activity in the Late Bronze Age and Late Iron Age.
Four pits and c.30 stake-holes were clustered in an area measuring 2m squared. A hazelnut-shell from one of these pits was dated to cal. AD 10-84 (UBA-52827; 1940±28), indicating that the group of features are associated with some ephemeral, domestic activity dating to the Late Iron Age.
A deposit, previously interpreted as a possible hearth, was confirmed to be a pit or post-hole, the upper horizon of which was covered in a pinkish gravel and oxidised silt representing dumped hearth material rather than an in-situ fireplace. The cluster of stake-holes present in the group, particularly those close to the eastern baulk, suggest some form of structure, possibly related to temporary habitation. No clear pattern could be ascertained from the cluster, therefore it is impossible to postulate beyond the fact that a post-/stake-built structure of Iron Age date may have existed at this location, along with a series of spatially associated pits. Each of the eastern group of stakes-holes contained small amounts of charcoal, as did one pit to the south, suggesting some burning in the immediate vicinity.
Another possible pit, filled with a charcoal-rich deposit, was uncovered to the south, and contained a small sherd of possible Late Bronze Age pottery. This suggests some further occupation on the site several centuries earlier than the pit and stake-hole cluster immediately to the north.
6 Endsleigh Estate, Carrigaline, Cork
