County: Tipperary Site name: COOLCROO (Site AR29)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002818
Author: David A. McCullough and Leigh Barker, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 617741m, N 656004m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.654942, -7.737778
An excavation was carried out in October 2006 at a site in Coolcroo townland, near Littleton, in advance of the proposed M8/N8 Cullahill to Cashel road improvement scheme. Prior assessment and centreline testing of the proposed route in July 2006 (see No. 1865, Excavations 2006, E2395) revealed a possible burnt mound.
Excavation revealed a shallow denuded burnt mound consisting of a shallow burnt spread, 15m by 12m, composed of charcoal-rich silt with some burnt stone. Ploughmarks show the shallow spread had been extensively disturbed. The spread partially sealed and filled three pits or troughs. The first was a shallow subrectangular pit or trough and adjacent to this was a wide but shallow subcircular pit. Both contained a shallow primary fill of burnt-mound material sealed by a deep deposit of dark-brown silt. A smaller rectangular pit lay to the south and this also contained charcoal-rich material with burnt-stone inclusions. No traces of a hearth or fire were found, but these may have been destroyed by ploughing.
Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny
