What is recorded here

In 2002, pipeline engineers cut through flat rushy pasture near the River Maigue and uncovered five prehistoric pits, a post-hole, and a short gully hidden beneath the grass. The largest pit held charcoal and burnt bone, suggesting a cremation burial, while a nearby shallow depression marked a place where someone had built a fire on the bare ground. These forgotten marks belonged to people who lived beside the water long before maps existed, their rituals preserved only because modern construction broke the soil open.

On flat rushy pasture 760m E of the River Maigue and the townland boundary with Ballynabanoge. One of a group of five prehistoric sites (LI031-211/212/214/215----) excavated within 500m on the Bord Gáis Éireann's Pipeline to the West in 2002 in Inchinclare and Rosstemple townlands (Grogan, et. al. 2007). No trace of the monument was present on historic maps or aerial photographs prior to the discovery of the site during pipeline construction. Five pits (two of which were possibly cremation burials), a post-hole and a short linear feature were excavated in a 36m stretch of the pipeline corridor (02E0511, Taylor 2004). The site was disturbed and truncated. The pit survived to a depth of just 0.02m. The smaller possible cremation burial survived to 0.04m deep. The larger cremation pit (ext. dims. 0.59m x 0.46m; D. 0.16m) had a steep concave profile and an irregular oval plan. Charcoal, small amounts of burnt bone and a fragment of animal bone were recovered from the pits. A short gully (L. 2.04m; Wth. 0.56m and D. 0.17m) was located adjacent and parallel with an existing field boundary, with a concave profile. The fill produced a small amount of burnt bone (possibly human) and six small pieces of chert. A small but well-defined pit and a deep post-hole with packing stones lay 15m E of the main focus of activity. A shallow pit, 15m further E, showed evidence of burning having taken place on the ground surface. Compiled by: Edmond O’Donovan Date of upload: 22 October 2020

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