County: Laois Site name: COOLFIN (3)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A015/121, E2230
Author: Ed Danaher, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound and Well
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 634327m, N 685041m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.915111, -7.489607
This site was located within Contract 2 of the proposed M7 Portlaoise to Castletown/M8 Portlaoise to Cullahill motorway scheme and was identified during advance testing by Robert O’Hara (Excavations 2005, No. 858, A015/028). Full resolution occurred in April 2006. At Coolfin 3 a large quantity of material was present within a 12m-long east–west-orientated cut, the southern side of which appeared to have been truncated by a stream that had been realigned in recent times. A large subrectangular pit situated to the north of this feature was interpreted as a well and contained a timber walkway leading from outside the northern edge to its centre. The cut for this U-shaped well was over 3m in length, 2m in width and 1m deep, while a single timber plank supported by uprights provided access into it. This timber structure was similar in morphology to the single-plank trackways of the Bronze Age. An isolated pocket of peat formed within this pit after it was abandoned, preserving the timbers, while a small quantity of burnt-mound material sealed the pit’s southern extent. It is possible that the well pre-dated the burnt-mound activity present within the site.
A post-excavation programme of the above sites (Coolfin 1–3, see Nos 1144–6, Excavations 2006) is currently under way, with mollusc, insect, petrological and radiocarbon analysis, hoping to shed further light on what may have been important components of a Middle to Late Bronze Age integrated landscape.
21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda
