Ballaugh Cronk Cliff section and 14th century sampling

Date(s): 1998-2001

Creator(s): Centre for Manx Studies

Scope & Content: Field records etc
11 01 1998; typed-up sampling record by Jim Innes; includes peat which was subsequently carbon-dated; 2 x A4 pages.
12 07 2001 to 15 07 2001; field notes by PJD and JJW; 11 pages from a shorthand notebook.
12 07 2001; photocopy of section drawing, burnt mound site Ballaugh Cronk; scale 1:50.
Section drawing, cliffs north of Ballaugh Cronk car park, 12th July 2001 – no scale
12 07 2001; draft reduced scale section drawing in preparation for publication.
Photocopies of the Cronk site location; 1st edition 25” OS; 2 joining A3 pages.
Photocopies of the Cronk site location; 1984 IOM Government plan; 2 joining A4 pages.
The Cronk, Ballaugh; draft of Bronze Age paper for Holocene; 5 A4 pages, including three of draft section drawings.

Loose roll
Original section drawing for eroded burnt mound site, Ballaugh Cronk, scale 1:50 – pencil on A3 film, dated 12 07 2001.

Correspondence:
20 11 2001 – R. Chiverrell to JJW, PRT, J. Innes, J. Blackford, PJD re. dates for Montpellier
20 11 2001 – G. Cook to R. Chiverrell re. Montpellier dates
11 03 2002 – PJD to JJW and J. Innes with details of site survey; borer needed.
14 03 2002 – J. Innes to PJD re. Cronk various information
15 03 2002 – R. Chiverrell to PJD re. revised Cronk section text and details of removed text.
16 03 2002 – R. Chiverrell to PJD re. revised Cronk section agreed the improvements.


Photographic record
[Formerly within plastic folder within blue ring-binder]

35mm colour prints
29 colour prints labelled ‘”Eroded” burnt mound site Ballaugh Cronk, July 2007’. No negatives or identification list in Silver Max Spielmann envelope.

35mm colour slides in hanging files
21 colour mounted slides [912-932] labelled ‘Ballaugh Cronk 12 07 01 JJW recorded section + general No’s 912-392’; no identification list.
21 colour mounted slides [933-953] labelled ‘Ballaugh Cronk Peat section 12 07 01 running S-N No’s 933-953’; no identification list.
23 colour mounted slides [954-976] labelled ‘Ballaugh Cronk, cliffs to North: peat, silt, sand + gravel in section, 13 07 01 No’s 954-976’; no identification list.
18 colour mounted slides [977-994] labelled ‘Ballaugh Cronk, cliffs to North: JJW’s burnt stone section and general shots 13 07 2001 No’s 977-994’; no identification list.

7 colour mounded slides [1424-1433] labelled ‘The Cronk cliff section and C14 sampling [1424-1433]’; no identification list; in small self-sealing plastic bag.

Administration / Biographical History: In 1998 coastal erosion allowed fresh exposures of the cliff section, to the north of the Cronk, Ballaugh, to be re-examined in some detail. This cliff section has been the subject of considerable research and described on a number of occasions (eg QRA 1971 and 1985); the research has mostly been focused on the late glacial and early post-glacial sequences and has generally ignored the mid-to late Holocene elements present in the exposures. This project was set to investigate these elements and to obtain samples for C14 radio carbon dating as part of a larger island wide project for the New Manx BAR volume; ‘Radiocarbon dates for the Isle of Man’ (Chiverrell, Davey, Gowlett, Woodcock, 1999).

The fresh 1998 exposures, immediately north of the Ballakinnag River suggested that this particular cliff section was much more complex that originally thought. The original thought was that the whole of the Crawyn sand plain up to the present position of the River was underlined by Killane Clay and Orrisdale-type sands and gravels. A new exposure of peat and lacustrine deposits obtained at 1.5m above present beach level implied that the sequence at this point had been significantly truncated; a peat sample produced a radiocarbon date of 2140-1783 cal BC (Early Bronze Age).

A further fresh cliff section was exposed in July 2001 which displayed a more extensive peat horizon which contained within it material typical of a prehistoric burnt mound. The material was in a dispersed state and clearly not in situ. Burnt mounds are known in the area, the closest, discovered in 1995, being less than 200m to the north (Davey, Woodcock 1999 119-120).

People:
J J Woodcock, P J Davey, R C Chiverrell, J A J Gowlett

Language: English

Collection: Manuscript Archive

Level: FILE

ID number: MS 14146/41

Access conditions: No regulations or restrictions are implemented on this material. Advance notification of a research visit is advisable by emailing library@mnh.gov.im

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