County: Wicklow Site name: KILCOOLE: Lott Lane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0244
Author: Emmet Byrnes for Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Furnace
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 729802m, N 708321m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.109644, -6.061242
Archaeological monitoring was undertaken during the excavation of the foundations of a dwelling-house near a medieval church and graveyard (SMR 13:29). During monitoring an old field drain and archaeological remains, in the form of two isolated 'bowl' (or smelting) furnaces, were discovered at the east and north-west sides of the site respectively. The discovery of the furnaces was reported to Dúchas, and rescue excavation was decided upon. Two cuttings were opened and excavated.
The first furnace was tadpole-shaped in plan and was 2.3m long, 0.48m wide and 0.4m at its maximum depth. The second furnace was pear-shaped in plan and was 1.52m long, 0.56m wide and 0.26m at its maximum depth. In both cases the bowl and flue were filled with a charcoal-rich, dark grey clay loam. In the case of the first furnace the bowl was also backfilled with a number of burnt stones. At the base of both the bowls were thin lenses of crushed charcoal, on average 20mm thick, but no evidence of the intensive firing or baking of the clay, thus suggesting that the features were not reused over any great period of time.
The finds recovered from the fill included a number of small pieces of iron slag, a piece of burnt, glazed, medieval pottery, an animal tooth, a flint flake and a struck flint pebble. When taken in conjunction with the terminus post quem provided by the burnt sherd of pottery the simple form of the furnaces suggests a date somewhere between the 13th and 15th centuries.
In addition a small number of prehistoric flints were recovered from the cultivation soil. Including the flake and struck pebble from the furnace fill, ten pieces altogether were found.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
