County: Dublin Site name: CORKAGH DEMESNE, Clondalkin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0935
Author: Ruth Elliott, for Judith Carroll & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Furnace
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 705616m, N 730291m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.312352, -6.415059
An excavation was conducted in Corkagh Demesne, Clondalkin, between 15 and 16 January 2001. The site was uncovered during monitoring on the Saggart, Rathcoole and Newcastle drainage pipeline (Excavations 2000, No. 339, 00E0825).
A nearly circular pit (1.5m by 1.2m in plan) with sharply sloping sides, a concave base and a depth of 0.17m was uncovered. Although no finds of slag or metal were retrieved, this was probably a pit furnace. It was lined by a charcoal-rich black silty clay with occasional inclusions of mottled yellow clay. This appears to have been charcoal laid down to fuel the furnace, which was subsequently raked through to retrieve the product. It was overlain by an orange friable silty clay, which may have been the broken-up remains of the furnace superstructure. A small patch of in situ burnt soil was situated 13.87m north-west of this and may have been the remains of a feature related to the pit furnace.
The site was situated in a County Council park within the former Corkagh Demesne estate lands. As these parklands were levelled and landscaped in modern or post-medieval times, it is possible that features related to the pit furnace were truncated or destroyed. It may also be inferred stratigraphically that the pit furnace was medieval or earlier.
Top Mews, 23 Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4
