County: Tipperary Site name: COOLAHOLLOGA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 97E0320
Author: Paul Logue, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 585073m, N 680214m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.872620, -8.221711
An assessment was carried out at this site between 1 and 3 September 1997. The work was undertaken on behalf of Tipperary Co. Council in advance of the Nenagh Bypass road construction scheme. The site and its immediate surrounds were identified as possibly representing the extant remains of a deserted medieval village. Accordingly, seven trenches were hand-excavated in order to establish the archaeological importance of the site. The trenches varied in length from 3m to 8m and all were 1m wide.
A total of 35m2 was excavated. The only features discovered were associated with post-medieval artefacts and were filled by, or located within, the topsoil. A stone spread located within the topsoil in Trench 2 was most likely created during a post-medieval period(s) of field clearance. A stone spread uncovered in Trench 5, which incorporated a ceramic potsherd of post-medieval date, was most likely created by the same process.
Linear and oval clearance cairns are still common features in the modern agricultural landscape. A linear cut exposed in Trench 4 may possibly be a drainage channel. Alternatively, it may have been positioned along a line of weakness in the underlying limestone strata and therefore be connected with quarrying activity. A sherd of modern glass recovered from this linear feature dates it to the post-medieval period. Therefore, although evidence of human activity was uncovered during the assessment excavation, it can be attributed to either agricultural or bedrock-quarrying purposes of post-medieval date.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
