County: Limerick Site name: COONAGH WEST
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A005/2018
Author: Fiona Reilly, for TVAS (Ireland) Ltd, Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare.
Site type: Post-medieval brick production
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 552534m, N 656805m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.660357, -8.701627
This brick-firing site was part of a larger industrial brick manufacturing landscape tucked into a bend on the north bank of the River Shannon (see No. 973 above, A005/2010).
The main areas of activity were primarily identified by two spreads of red-brick rubble and oxidised areas concentrated in the northern and central part of the site. A north–south-aligned ditch (3–5.8m wide) was investigated along the western edge of the site and was seen to be a continuation of an extant ditch to the south.
Brick-firing activity survived as rows of brick ‘benches’ (linear brick features) and bands of red (oxidised) and black (reduced) deposits. Evidence for several brick clamps (brick kilns without a permanent structure) was uncovered.
In the northern part of the site a large area of firing activity measuring c. 25m by 15m was located. Two phases of firings were recorded.
The central section was the most intensively used area of the site. Several brick benches were uncovered in an area measuring 17m by 12m and these represented at least two phases of activity, although it is not possible to determine whether all the clamps at the lowest level were contemporary. The earliest level of activity consisted of three and possibly four groups of brick clamps. Some clamps consisted of set bricks, where the bottom course had not been removed, while some were represented by reduced and oxidised impressions on the ground surface. Depressions of bricks indicated the location of the northern ends of two benches.
Bricks might have been transported to the quay immediately to the west.
Post-excavation work is ongoing and so further discussion is not possible at present.
