2000:0650 - COOLFORE (Site 2), Louth

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Louth Site name: COOLFORE (Site 2)

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0795

Author: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.

Site type: Fulacht fia

Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)

ITM: E 704538m, N 780016m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.759259, -6.414620

The site was found by Kieran Campbell during the monitoring of topsoil-stripping for the Northern Motorway (Drogheda Bypass). It lay beside a stream, on fen-peat at the bottom of a gentle north-facing slope. About half the site had been destroyed prior to excavation. Excavation took place between 14 August and 5 September.

An area 15m x 5m was identified for excavation. A thin deposit of burnt mound material covered a network of nineteen stake-holes. These did not appear to form any coherent pattern, though eight were found surrounding a discrete deposit of peat measuring 1.9m x 1.7m. This peat lay over the remaining eleven stake-holes. No finds were recovered.

Radiocarbon dates are awaited.

6 Riverview, Ardnore, Kilkenny