What is recorded here

Dromdowney Lower holds a rectangular moated site where deep water still fills the western ditch, beside a smaller square annexe scarped two metres above the bog. Birch trees shade the interior now, but local memory claims people recut the deepest section in the 1800s to grow flax inside the old defences. The surrounding field is crowded with faint banks and ditches running toward a church and burial ground, as if the whole slope had once been divided into wet rooms for living, working and remembering.

In wet boggy land, at base of gentle N-facing slope. Listed by Barry (1981, 83, no. 31). Rectangular area (62m N-S; 30m E-W) defined by low, wide, earthen bank (int. H 0.4m; ext. H 0.35m) on N, E and along E half of S side, with wide, shallow external fosse; deep waterlogged fosse (D 1.5m; Wth 3m) along W half of S side and on W side. According to local information, deep section of fosse recut in 1800s when flax grown in interior. Low counterscarp bank on N side. At E end of N fosse, leat extends NNE for c. 30m (to field boundary), defined by low bank on both sides; no trace of leat on N side of field fence where modern house and garden exists. Square moated annexe adjoins site along N half of W side; raised area (11.6m E-W; 11.3m N-S) defined by scarp (H 2.1m) surrounded by wide, wet fosse (D 1.2m; Wth 4m); shares E fosse with moated site. Low counterscarp bank (H 0.4m) at W end of S side, at S end of W side and for short section at E end of N side. Birch trees cover interior. Annexe depicted on 1842 OS 6-inch map as hachured square enclosure. Numerous linear features formed by low banks and fosses in same field to E and S of moated site, extend S to church site (14475) and burial ground (14091). These include (a) rectangular area (c. 20m N-S; c. 14m E-W) defined by low earthen bank with shallow external fosse; low outer bank on N side curves around NW corner and turns W, for c. 40m, to join SE corner of moated site; E bank of enclosure extends beyond enclosure to N and S, for short distance. (b) immediately W of (a) is low earthen bank extending N for c. 30m and S for c. 86m; at S end it forms right angle and extends c. 14m to E, terminating at E field boundary. (c) extending S from S end of (b) and joining up with E bank of church enclosure (14475) is low earthen bank (Wth 4m; L 32m). (d) extending W from S end of (b) to field boundary to W, is shallow fosse (D 0.5m; Wth 0.8m) with low earthen bank (H 0.6m) on N side. (e) in SE corner of field, is mound (c. 22m N-S; c. 12m E-W; H 1-1.5m; long axis NNW-SSE); with central linear N-S depression. (f) c. 12m S of moated site is sub-square raised area (8m N-S; 8m E-W; H 0.5m) with top surface uneven. Area between this feature and field boundary to W is very wet. 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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