M28 Cork to Ringaskiddy Project and General Mitigation on NRO Projects

Welcome to the M28 Cork to Ringaskiddy Project’s archaeological information page. Here you will find information about the projects past, current and future activities and various useful links. As this is our most recent large project, here we will also outline how archaeology is mitigated on road projects in general. The accounts of archaeology on other projects will give less detail on the process itself (to avoid repetition).

Project Background

The M28 Cork Ringaskiddy Project is an approved road development, under the terms of the National Monuments (Amendments) Act 1930–2014 and is the subject of directions issued by the Minister Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The project is being progressed by Cork County Council (CCC) on behalf of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and will comprise the construction of approximately 12.5 km of new road linking the N40 Bloomfield Interchange to the east of Ringaskiddy, in County Cork. The archaeological investigations on the scheme were undertaken to comply with mitigation commitments in the Cultural Heritage chapter of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the scheme. Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd were awarded the Archaeological Consultancy Services Contract in December 2021 following a competitive quality-based tender process. The work was conducted by Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd (in conjunction with sub-consultants TVAS Ireland Ltd) on behalf of Cork County Council and complied fully with the Policy and Guidelines on Archaeological Excavation (DoAHGI 1999), the Code of Practice for Archaeology agreed between the Minister of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs and Transport Infrastructure Ireland (2017), other relevant codes of practice and guidelines, and with the terms of the Ministerial Directions and excavation registration number issued by the National Monuments Service (NMS). The presence and location of archaeological remains at this site was discovered through both geophysical survey (Gimson 2021) and subsequent archaeological testing (Long et al. 2022).

What’s Happening Now

Prior to the main Archaeological Services contract, Cork County Council commissioned targeted geophysical surveys and some targeted archaeological testing. LiDAR Survey and analysis for the scheme was undertaken in 2017 (Hanley, 2017). More recently, geophysical survey services (non-invasive remote sensing) were procured that were undertaken along the length of the route (Gimson 2021), and helped to inform the subsequent test trenching. Archaeological geophysical survey can identify former features in the landscape such as field boundaries and archaeological sites such as ringforts and prehistoric ring ditches. As well as targeting these results, test trenching was also done on a systematic grid-like format, to help identify archaeology that geophysical survey would not clearly reveal. Archaeological fieldwork commenced on site in early 2022, and following the excavation of over 50,000 metres of test trench (> 50 kilometres), helped to identify in the region of 38 separate archaeological sites, clustered in over 100 separate areas. Each of these areas was then fully documented, surveyed, photographed and the archaeological features excavated and sampled, and artefacts recovered. The sites, based on the initial identification and analysis, range in date from the prehistoric era (as early as c. 8,000 years ago) up to the early modern period. The work of archaeologists is sometimes painstaking, as virtually all work has to be done by hand, and is often a delicate (but fascinating!) process. By early 2024 all fieldwork as outlined in the contract was complete, with only minor items to be concluded on site. As well as the archaeological excavation work, a range of built heritage structures were also documented along the route of the future M28. These included some stone field boundaries including townland boundaries, a bridge, a gate lodge, a well, sea walls, and various building remains such as early 19th century cottage remains. Such structures are surveyed, photographed, and written descriptions made including detailed measurements, and historical research conducted as appropriate. Throughout the site works, the archaeological consultants have engaged with the public as much as possible, giving public talks, displays in local libraries, producing newsletters (see below), an online Story Map (see below), podcast and frequently welcoming visitors to the sites, including school groups (both primary and secondary), university students, and a range of local groups and elected officials. These visits and public events were hugely popular, and have helped to keep the local community engaged with the archaeological work. The media has also engaged with the project on a number of occasions, with features in various newspapers, online pages and indeed features on national news!

What’s Happening Next

As the fieldwork concludes, so the archaeological works enter their final, off-site, stage. This is referred to as ‘post-excavation’ or ‘post-ex’ for short. Initially, relatively brief though detailed reports are written where all of the details of each excavation are included, outlining what was found, how it looked etc. In parallel, a lot of post-excavation analyses are conducted by a whole range of people with various specialist skills. Samples are processed in various ways, to recover environmental information (pollen, charcoal, charred seeds etc), and the recovered material is sent to various specialists and scientists for identification and analysis. Finds material (artefacts) are catalogued and sent to various finds specialists for further analysis. When this stage approaches its end, a wealth of information has been collected, and this is then compiled in to final excavation reports for each site. These reports can be quite technical, so a range of other outputs are also produced. Public talks will be given, articles published, and ultimately on a project as large as the M28, a project monograph (book) will be published, outlining in a reader-friendly manner the findings from the project. While all of these ‘post-ex’ tasks are ongoing, the engineers are busy constructing the new road, thanks to the fact that nowadays archaeological works are carried out in a planned fashion, well in advance of construction commencing. The steps outlined above are carried out on all large projects where new roads or new sections of road are being constructed in Ireland. Thus the descriptions of the other projects included here will be more brief, giving less detail on the detailed process.