This week's plant remains reports:
- Ballybrowney Test Trench E2033
- Ballybrowney Ring Ditch 05E0233
- Fermoy Townland 05E0078
- Scartbarry E2118
The sites at Ballybrowney come from Ballybrowney Lower in north Cork, a townland where many excavations have been carried out. The plant remains from the test excavation (E2033) came from an early medieval ditch fill. The remains included oat grains and a weed seed. The ring ditch at Ballybrowney (05E0233) was fully excavated. The plant remains included very small amounts of sloe stones, weeds and fragments of cereal grains. (This report was probably written in 2006, but the earliest copy I have is dated to 2009.)
The site at Fermoy Townland comprised a fulacht fiadh/burnt mound and two pits. This is a negative results report, as no plant remains were found. This is common with many samples from burnt mound sites.
The site at Scartbarry was also a burnt mound. As with Fermoy there were no charred plant remains from this burnt mound. Some waterlogged plant remains were recovered from the trough of the fulacht fiadh, including hazelnut shell fragments and common weed seeds from the surrounding environment (buttercup, nettle, etc.).
