2007:1450 - Cloncollog 1, Offaly

Cloncollog 1 is located c. 2.5km east-south-east of Tullamore in an irregular pasture field which sloped gently from north-east to south-west and was excavated in February 2007.
The rubble footings of a building (Context 009) were identified 265m from the south-western end of the centre-line trench and 150m south-west of a pit at Cloncollog 2 (see No. 1451 below).
Context 009 comprised the corner footing stones of a stone structure. The remains of the house identified consisted of a right-angled corner with both lengths measuring 2.5m. The cut for the foundation was c. 0.45m in width and consisted of moderately compact mid–dark-brown silty clay with inclusions of large sub-angular stones. This footing may have continued into Trench 19b but appears off line on the 1:50 scale drawn plan, proving difficult to ascertain its true extent without further archaeological works. A house is marked on the first-edition OS map of 1838; it is most likely to be this house identified in the testing, especially as a field boundary marked on the OS map immediately north-east of the house orientated north-west/south-east was also identified in the centre-line test-trench 0.4m north of the house structure. The boundary consisted of mid-brown silty clay measuring 0.7m wide and 0.26m deep.
Three additional trenches (19a–c) were excavated parallel to the centre-line trench. Trench 19a connected Trenches 19 and 20 together on the northern side, Trench 19b was 3.5m short of connecting Trench 19 and 20 on the south-eastern side together and Trench 19c connected Trench 19 and 18 together, also on the south-eastern side. These trenches measured a total of 38.1m and were opened to get the extent of the building and other possible surrounding buildings; the remains identified proved incoherent.