County: Tipperary Site name: LOUGHFEEDORA (Site 173.4)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002291
Author: Martin Doody, on behalf of Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: House - 18th century
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 607153m, N 638048m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.493795, -7.894653
The site at Loughfeedora was located on relatively flat pastureland with the ground rising gently to the north and east. Site 173.4 was situated c. 160m south of a group of three possibly prehistoric sites, Loughfeedora 173.1–173.3 (see No. 1891, Excavations 2006), which were excavated as part of the Cashel to Mitchelstown road improvement scheme. The site consisted of the remains of an 18th-century cottage, known locally as ‘The Weaver’s Cottage’, with cobbled courtyard, located adjacent to a retting pond. The site was excavated in July 2006.
The cottage was rectangular in plan and measured 10m north-east/south-west by 5.5m. The walls were of rubble stone and at the time of excavation only the basal courses remained in a slight footing trench. The maximum surviving thickness of the walls was 0.75m. The entrance on the south-east side was 1m wide and was marked externally by a well-defined cobbled entrance pathway, 1m wide by 2.5m in length. A break in the north-west wall was interpreted as a rear entrance and this faced towards the retting pond, which lay outside the excavated area and also outside the road constraint.
No trace of the interior floor remained at the time of excavation nor was any evidence of a fireplace or hearth recorded. There was evidence to suggest that a cobbled annexe to the main building adjoined the cottage on the north-east side.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the cottage was demolished around the turn of the 20th century and that much of the stone was removed to be used in the construction of nearby farm buildings to the east of the site.
A considerable quantity of artefacts were recorded in the topsoil throughout the excavated area. These consisted mainly of nails, sherds of glass bottles and 19th-century ceramics.
New Road, Portlaoise, Co. Laois
