Metalworking site in Ballinvinny South

In pasture, on a gentle W-facing slope, overlooking the valley of a S-flowing stream. Topsoil-stripping on the N8 Glanmire-Watergrasshill Bypass uncovered an area (4.2m x 2.7m) comprising burnt clay, charcoal and a built-up layer of hard-packed tiny metal fragments that was subsequently excavated in 2001. According to the excavator (Cotter 2003c, 28), the area has been identified as a smithy floor on the basis of the build-up layer of metal fragments of smithying 'scales', tiny metal fragments struck off by the smith's hammer as iron was being shaped and moulded. Two distinct sections to the smithy floor were identified. The smith's fire was probably located in the N half of the area where a charcoal-enriched silt layer occurred. The remaining S portion of the floor contained the build-up of metal 'scales', suggesting that this was the area where the anvil had been located. Stake-holes excavated below the silt and metal layers probably marked the locations of the structures on which the smith's fire, bellows and other features associated with the metalworking operation were placed. A pit on the W side of the floor may have been the location of the anvil and disturbance within the pit may have resulted from the uprooting of the anvil (ibid.). The E edge of the floor was straight and regular suggesting that it was bordered by a wall, though no other evidence of such had survived. A metalled surface, which was likely to have been a pathway, extended (L 20m) N from the metalworking site. Two parallel fosses that formed a portion of a medieval road (CO064-161----) were noted c. 5m to the W of this metalworking site. According to Cotter (ibid.), artefactual evidence suggests that the smithy was in use from the late 17th into the 18th century and was part of a wider settlement complex dating from the late or post-medieval period which includes domestic structures (see CO064-156001-; CO064-156002-; CO064-156003-; CO064-156004-; CO064-157----), excavated some 80m to the N. (Cotter 2003c, 27-8) The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). Date of upload: 22 December 2009