2005:975 - COONAGH WEST, Limerick

The site was located on a gravel ridge at the margin of the estuarine River Shannon flood-plain. Prehistoric activity was characterised by two fulachta fiadh, both with troughs, one of which was plank-lined. The fulachta fiadh measured 1.2m by 0.8m and 5.2m by 2m. Two small burnt-stone spreads without troughs were also examined. A trackway with two phases, first wood and then stone, was excavated in association with a line of large worked timber posts leading out from the dry land to the edge of a small stream.
Radiocarbon determinations have been made from alluvium stratigraphically pre-dating the trackway and these indicate Neolithic and Bronze Age dates.
Two circular structures, thought to be prehistoric, were recorded on the gravel ridge. One of these structures was defined by an arc of post-holes with a diameter of 8m. The other nearby structure was indicated by a curvilinear gully with a diameter of 4m.
Prehistoric finds include five stone axes, two of which appear to be polished, and chert and flint tools, including a number of arrowheads.
Early medieval activity was represented by a circular ditched enclosure. The enclosure had a diameter of 36m and had an entrance at the north-west (the dry land side). The ditch was typically 2.5m wide and 1m deep; there was no evidence of an associated bank. Other earlier and later linear and curvilinear ditches were associated with the main ditch. Finds from the ditches included two copper-alloy penannular ring brooches, typologically dated to the 6th–7th centuries AD, a very large animal bone assemblage, including a worked antler handle and a lathe-turned spindle whorl. Other copper alloy and stone artefacts, including pins, pin sharpeners and quernstones, were also found.
A stone causeway had been built from the dry ridge on which the Early Christian enclosure was constructed and extended south through marshy ground towards the River Shannon. Approximately 11m of this trackway was observed.