Kiln - corn-drying

The National Monuments Service's description

Excavated in 1955 by E.M Fahy (1956a, 34-5), in conjunction with horizontal-wheeled mill (CO071-090002-) which lies c. 45m to NW. Site occupies artificially levelled platform on S side of steep-sided glen; an artificial causeway links this area to the mill site. Excavation revealed an hourglass-shaped 'elongated shallow pit lying almost north-south across the platform....the pit was 22ft 6in long, 3ft 9in wide at its northern end, 2 ft wide about midway along its length, and 5ft 9in wide at its southern end. It was 1ft 6in deep at its northern end, and 2ft deep at its southern end, and 19in deep in its central area' (ibid., 35). Fahy found that 'a 2in thick layer of charcoal covered its floor at the northern end and spread rather thinly over the remainder of the pit floor' (ibid.); some large stones were found scattered on its southern half. Fahy concluded that pit 'may have been the ruins of the flue of a grain drying kiln, the northen end of the pit accommodating the fire' (ibid.); it appeared that kiln was deliberately dismantled. Area now overgrown; no obvious indication of kiln.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 3: Mid Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009