County: Kildare Site name: Coolane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: E002936
Author: Emma Devine, for Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 676438m, N 687411m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.932071, -6.863022
A burnt mound measuring c. 20m by 15m and badly disturbed by ploughing was identified by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil during the course of soil-stripping at Coolane for rerouting of the gas pipeline (A021/110).
Upon removal of the burnt-mound material, eight pits and two troughs were uncovered. The larger of the two troughs was subcircular, 3.2m by 2.8m by 1.94m deep, with irregular sides and tapered towards the base, giving it a cone-shaped profile. It had filled with a series of naturally silted layers, one of which contained an unworked roundwood log. The log lay horizontally across the trough and appeared to have been dumped in after abandonment rather than placed for a purpose. Finally the trough appears to have been deliberately backfilled with burnt-mound material that may have been waste generated by Trough 2, located to the north-west.
The second trough was subrectangular and measured 2.7m by 1.4m by 0.32m. Its primary fill was also a layer of silt that contained a charcoal-rich lens. A deposit then slumped in from the trough’s northern edge and, as in Trough 1, this trough appears to have been deliberately backfilled with burnt-mound material. Neither of the troughs was lined, but the subsoil was an almost pure clay/marl and would have retained water naturally.
Two of the pits lay adjacent to Trough 1 on its south-western side and may have been used for storage of pot boilers prior to heating. They measured 1.2m by 1m by 0.4m and 1m by 1m by 0.25m; both were circular with bowl-shaped bases and filled with a charcoal-rich silt that contained a high percentage of degraded sandstone and which probably washed in from burnt-mound material after Trough 1’s use life had ended.
Another pair of pits was located south-east of Trough 1 and measured 0.64m by 0.6m by 0.18m and 0.66m by 0.64m by 0.34m. Both were circular with straight sides though one has a slightly concave base and is shallower than the other. They may represent post-holes or storage pits, as no evidence for packing stones was present. A grey silty material had slumped in from the eastern edge of the pits and was followed by a deposit of burnt-mound material.
The four other pits were located in isolation to each other and the rest of the activity; all but one were filled by a single deposit of burnt-mound material; the exception contained two dump layers.
It is hoped that samples taken during excavation will yield further information and dating materials.
