What is recorded here

Halfway up the Awbeg gorge, a narrow fissure opens into Foley Cave, where shallow soil still holds charcoal, burnt bone and a small baked clay ball. The chamber is little more than a hand-span of shadow, yet its deeper deposits carry Pleistocene animals across centuries of forgotten time. People may have crouched in that darkness, marking clay or feeding a flame, while the river cut the world beneath them.

On E side of Awbeg River limestone gorge, S of Castletownroche. One of three caves (9807, 9808) investigated in 1938 and 1940 (Gwynn et al. 1942); listed by Dowd (1997, 31) as 'Foley Cave'. Fissure high on side of gorge provided entrance (L 1.5m) to small chamber (L 4m; Wth 2m) from the back of which ran passage and narrow gallery (see plan Dowd ibid., 34, fig. 3.11). Outer fissure and chamber excavated. In these the 'superficial deposits' (D c. 0.35m) produced charcoal, fragment of burnt bone, small baked clay ball and fragments of iron; 'intermediate and deep deposits' produced wide range of Pleistocene fauna. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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