Regional Landscapes: The Archaeology of Cork Research Group
Director: Professor William O’Brien
Cork, the largest county in Ireland, has a land area of 7450 square kilometres and an impressive 1,100km long Atlantic coastline. The sedimentary geology of this region has been moulded by geological forces and Quaternary ice-sheets, creating a scenic landscape of great diversity. Several major river systems cross the ridge-and-valley topography that extends from the Cork hinterland to the southwestern peninsulas, bordered by major mountain belts to the north and west.
There are many contrasting landscapes and ecosystems in this large county, which provided opportunities and challenges for human life at different times in the past.
The history of human settlement in Cork dates from the appearance of Mesolithic forager groups in the earliest post-Glacial period. The accessible coastline and broken landscape, with its rich soils, mineral resources, rivers and woodlands, made this region attractive for human settlement, over the past nine thousand years. The adoption of farming, some six to four thousand years ago, slowly transformed the Cork landscape, as successive generations of Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and medieval farmers worked this land.
These early peoples in Cork have left a rich archaeological heritage. A total of around 17,000 prehistoric and early historic (pre-1700 AD) archaeological sites are recorded in the county, to which a large number of post-medieval monuments may be added. This constitutes the largest inventory of archaeological sites from any region in Ireland. These monuments mostly date to the Bronze Age and medieval periods, from which there is a wealth of stone and earthen monuments, contrasting with the low archaeological visibility of Stone Age and Iron Age settlement. This monument record probably constitutes only a fraction of the total number of archaeological sites that exist, or once existed, in the county.
There is a long history of antiquarian and archaeological research in Cork, dating back to the work of learned scholars and local societies in the nineteenth century. The establishment in 1908/09 of a Department of Archaeology in University College Cork provided a basis to promote teaching and research on the archaeology of this region. The Department has undertaken numerous research projects and excavations over the years in Cork and in the neighbouring counties of Munster. Our Archaeological Survey Unit has completed the first major inventory of archaeological sites and monuments in Cork, carried out as part of the national survey programme. We are in close contact with local societies, schools and heritage protection bodies, to promote understanding and hence protection of the archaeological heritage of this region. As the Department reaches its centenary, the establishment of this Research Group continues our commitment to the archaeology of Cork.
Current research projects include:
The Beara Project
A study of early settlement landscapes in the hill valleys of the Beara Peninsula
The Iverni Project
An exploration of the prehistoric and early medieval settlement of the mid-Cork region
The Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills Project
Community and school archaeology at a major industrial landscape
The Lisleagh Ringfort Project
Early medieval settlement in north Cork
The Origins of Cork City
The Viking and early medieval settlement of the city and hinterland
