County: Limerick Site name: COOLALOUGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 40:36 Licence number: 94E0172
Author: Sarah Cross and Eoin Grogan
Site type: Earthwork
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 571756m, N 635348m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.468841, -8.415677
This is a substantial earthwork and mound structure within a barrow cemetery on the floodplain of the river Mahore. The purpose of the investigation was to clear and record a section across the monument created by a substantial field drain. Unfortunately, the northern side of the site had been levelled immediately prior to the investigation. Two pieces of lithic debitage and a quantity of animal bone were collected from the surface.
A topographic survey was conducted of the surviving portion of the site. The monument is composed of three banks, three ditches and a central mound. The overall diameter of the site is 78.5m. There is a gap in the outer bank which also shows slightly in Banks 2 and 3. This is probably damage from a later field drain which can be seen running up to the site. The height of the mound above the surrounding ground is 1.36m. Some collapse near the centre of the mound showed signs of burning during an earlier examination; 2m of this face was cleaned and recorded as a section. The mound was constructed by scooping up the surrounding lake marl which by this point had been covered by fen peat. The different contexts with varying amounts of organic and clay content reflect the mixing of these two materials in varying amounts. Two samples were obtained from the site. The first was from an area of in situ burning within the body of the mound associated with a pit containing burnt sheep/goat bone (Nora Bermingham pers. comm.) This was sealed by a capping of redeposited lake marl forming the upper mantle of the mound. While the mound, and indeed the entire monument, could have been constructed as a single event, the capping over the mound may suggest its construction in two phases. Radiocarbon dates are awaited for the burning and from the second sample taken from the pre-mound peat. A previously unrecorded ring-ditch was also noted 20m to the north. It measures 7m north-south and 6m east-west. The mound is 3.6m in diameter and c. 0.3m high.
North Munster Project, The Discovery Programme, 13-15 Lower Hatch St., Dublin 2
