Wow! A hitherto unrecorded stone circle, a boulder burial, a gigantic standing stone and a dolmen… all found on a Saturday morning walk.

Our expedition began after a great breakfast in Budds – Ballydehob’s newest eating venue: try it out – it has an attractive cheerful atmosphere and the food is excellent. After this sustenance we set out to explore – for us – uncharted territory. Did we travel miles out into the wild hills of West Cork to find these remarkable pieces of archaeology? No, we walked a few metres down the road…

Right behind the main village street in Ballydehob is a spectacular example of twentieth century Irish history: a golf driving range with a prehistoric theme!

Ballydehob’s Golf enterprise came with the Celtic Tiger – and went when the Tiger collapsed. It’s now a site looking for a buyer – you could have it!

But we do hope that if someone does buy the site, then they keep all the features: the winding paths by the river, the parkland which feels so rural and secluded, yet is within a stone’s throw of the main N71 highway – and all the New Archaeology...

The unfortunate demise of the West Cork Golf Academy has left Ballydehob with an unofficial ‘town park’ – a very pleasant place to walk on a balmy spring morning. If only there was a way that this could become a permanent amenity for the community. But the land has a value and – presumably – potential for some worthwhile development. Who knows what the future holds? Meanwhile, we enjoyed our chance discovery of New Archaeology right on our doorstep!

PS – since publishing this post earlier today, I realise from comments received that some readers have been puzzled by it: rest assured that all this ‘new’ archaeology dates from the twentieth century – and was constructed as part of the golf project! They made such a good job of it that it could just prove very confusing for archaeologists of the future…