2004:1793 - COOLAMURRY, Wexford

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Wexford Site name: COOLAMURRY

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0326

Author: Grace Fegan, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd, Brehon House, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.

Site type: Medieval moated site

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 691312m, N 637286m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.479353, -6.655747

This site was excavated on behalf of Wexford County Council as part of the N30 Moneytucker-Jamestown realignment scheme. It is located immediately east of a pronounced kink in the Boolabaun Lane on land sloping gently away to the south, just south of the existing N30. The site was identified during centre-line testing by Emmet Stafford, who uncovered the large enclosing ditch. Local information also identified the site as having been where a 'mound' had been levelled by the landowner in c. 1950.

The land to the east and south of the site has been drained by a network of stone drains and would have been a very wet and boggy area into the 20th century. Just south of the site is an unnamed tributary of the River Baun. The land north and west of the site is upland and would have been of better agricultural quality. This places the site on the boundary between marginal and higher-quality agricultural lands. Works began on the site on 23 March and were completed on 28 May 2004.

The site comprised a large enclosing ditch with a maximum depth of 2.2m and average width of 4m. The area enclosed by the ditch was rectangular and measured 35m east-west by 25m. The eastern length of the ditch comprised an existing field boundary ditch and bank, as did the western half of the southern length. The leat appeared to be represented by an existing field boundary running to the northeastern corner of the site from an easterly direction. This was investigated by means of three machine-excavated trenches.

The basal ditch fills were waterlogged and produced a number of locally made pottery sherds, including at least one very fine glazed jug. Organic material was recovered from the basal ditch fill, including some worked pieces of oak and some birch. The ditch widened significantly at one point along the northern length. At this point the ditch was also considerably shallower and two worked oak timbers were discovered lying horizontally in shallow slots and associated with two large post-holes. It is thought that these remains represent what would have been a bridged entrance across the water-filled moat. The upper fill of the ditch has been interpreted as the internal bank material that was backfilled in 1950.

The internal area was subdivided roughly in half by a north-south-running shallow ditch. All internal structural evidence found on the site was located on the eastern side of this division. This comprised an area dense with post- and stake-holes, evidence for hearths, a series of pits of varying dimensions and a group of sleeper or slot-trenches. Features from this area produced pottery of a local cooking ware type. Also found in this area, in a rectangular pit, was a pair of fine copper-alloy dividers in association with a partially twisted lead rod. A copper-alloy coin was recovered from material overlying an adjacent cobbled surface. In the western half of the site a well-laid cobbled path ran from the entrance to the southwestern corner. Apart from this path, the western half was devoid of features.

Test-trenches were also machine excavated in fields directly east and west of the site in response to linear cropmarks identified during works. All the features uncovered and examined were non-archaeological.

This site represented the remains of a medieval moated site, a defended farmstead. This site type is quite common in Co. Wexford, representing a phase of occupation by Anglo-Norman settlers, but there are very few excavated examples. Defining this site was the large water-filled ditch or moat. Internal to this ditch would have been an earthen bank. The remains of this bank were visible on the site along the eastern length and half of the southern length, as it was incorporated into existing field boundaries. The 'mound' of earth levelled in the 1950s seems to have comprised the internal bank, which was pushed in to the remaining, partially open, ditch, creating the upper fills of the ditch as excavated.

The large oak beams with associated features must represent the remains of a bridged entrance to the site. The exact nature of this bridge will be extrapolated through a detailed study of the morphology of the remains combined with specialist knowledge of known building techniques of the time.

The leat seems to be represented by the existing field boundary that runs east from the north-eastern corner of the site. This field boundary comprises a deep ditch to the south and a pronounced bank to the north. The bank has been interrupted by modern agricultural drainage approximately halfway long its length. However, what seems to be the original ditch still survives on the southern side and the line of the boundary seems to be true.

The structural remains are confined to the eastern half of the site, as defined by the shallow north-south-running ditch. The concentration of post-holes, stake-holes, sleeper trenches, hearths and pits will need more in-depth scrutiny in order to decipher a pattern and create a possible reconstruction of the buildings that existed on the site. It should be made clear, however, that a considerable amount of evidence may have been lost upon demolition of the internal banks.

Finds from the lower fills of the ditch seem to tie in with the approximate dating of this type of site. All of the pottery sherds appear to be of local manufacture, with some fine examples showing overseas influences. Specialist analysis of these sherds will be required in order to establish the relative density of this material. Combined with further analysis of the structural evidence, the length of occupation and number of occupants may be established.