County: Kildare Site name: COLLINSTOWN (Site 18)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E1225
Author: Fiona Reilly, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Kiln and Structure
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 498387m, N 736808m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.365000, -6.920278
Site 18 was found during monitoring of topsoil-stripping of the Northern Link on the Celbridge Interchange (see Excavations 2001, No. 610). The scheme was approximately 4km in length and ran from Celbridge to Leixlip through gently undulating land with a mixture of arable, pasture and woodland. The southern part of the scheme runs through an area heavily influenced by 18th-century landscape design, with avenues, woodland and tree-lined field boundaries centred on the early 18th-century house at Castletown. This site was found in the grounds of Collinstown House, close to Leixlip.
Three main features were identified: a stone-lined kiln, a possible wall and a possible drain. There was no direct stratigraphic relationship between the kiln and the wall.
The kiln
Evidence was found for two phases of kiln use. The first phase was found under the stone phase (Phase 2) and was sealed off from it by a deposit into which the structural stones of Phase 2 were set. A charcoal deposit at the base of the kiln cut represented this phase. The second phase of the kiln was of stone set in a keyhole-shaped cut. The single course of roughly hewn stones was set along the circumference of the bowl in C23, with a 0.8m gap at the flue. The largest stones were placed at the neck of the flue. The cut was orientated in a north-westerly direction. It was 2m wide in the bowl area and 0.8m in the flue section. Its sides were almost vertical while the flue sloped gently down into the bowl. C18 was a charcoal deposit found at the base of the kiln. It has been sampled for cereal remains and other environmental evidence.
C6 represents the destruction phase of the kiln and was confined to within the kiln. It contained some stones that might originally have been part of the kiln structure. Burnt and unburnt animal bone, a sherd of medieval pottery and post-medieval pottery were found in it.
The wall
A wall survived to the north-west of the kiln as a single course, one stone wide for most of its length but two stones wide at its north-eastern end. The destruction phase of this feature is represented by a deposit of loose stone found along the south-eastern edge of the surviving section. The wall may have functioned as a windbreak for the kiln.
It is not possible to establish by artefacts the date of the kiln’s use since none were found associated with those phases. Since post-medieval pottery sherds were found in the destruction level it could be suggested that it had a post-medieval destruction date. The presence of two sherds of medieval pottery on site indicates medieval activity in the vicinity or possibly a date for use of the kiln.
Wood Road, Cratloekeel, Cratloe, Co. Clare
