Kiln - corn-drying

The National Monuments Service's description

Within the historic town (CO027-042----) of Glanworth, to the SW of 'Rock Abbey' (CO027-040----). Excavation in advance of a housing development in Boherash townland in 2004 revealed the remains of a corn-drying kiln. The extant remains of this keyhole-shaped kiln (min. L c. 4m) comprised an arc of five large limestone blocks which survived as one course (H 0.17m) and was centrally placed in a vertical-sided flat-based pit (2.1m E-W; max. D 0.35m). According to the excavator (Cleary 2007, 94), the original height of the kiln bowl may have measured up to c. 0.8m and the original internal diameter of the bowl was estimated to have been c. 1.25m. Part of a stone platform survived on the NE side of the bowl. The extant pit (max. Wth 1.25m; max. D 0.3m) that originally housed the flue extended (L 2.38m) to the S and terminated at an area of burning, probably representing the stoke-hole (1m N-S; 0.6m E-W). According to Cleary (ibid., 95), the sides of the flue may have originally been lined and the flue may also have been covered by stone flags, though no vestiges of this lining or covering were evident. A charcoal-enriched fill within the bowl and flue produced large quantities of charred cereals of mainly oat and some wheat and barley. One sherd of locally made Cork-type pottery was recovered from this fill, providing a date of late 13th/early 14th century for the abandonment of the kiln. A second sherd of Cork-type pottery was recovered from the backfill layer over the hearth and flue areas. Two adjacent pits (see CO027-204----) may have been in contemporary use with the kiln and a series of pits which were dug into the S end of the kiln were found to have post-dated the kiln use. (Cleary 2006a; 2007)

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009).

Date of upload: 22 December 2009