County: Wexford Site name: COOLHULL
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E420
Author: Emmet Stafford
Site type: Vicinity of fortified house
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 688481m, N 609913m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.233466, -6.703745
Monitoring of groundworks associated with the construction of a single house was undertaken at a greenfield site at Coolhull, Bannow, in 2010 (Excavations 2010, no. 735). The site is located to the south of WX046-028, a fortified house.
The monitoring involved the removal of topsoil from the footprint of the house pad and its driveway, as well as the excavation of the house’s foundations. Although a number of sherds of medieval pottery were recovered from the topsoil removed from the site, no features of an archaeological nature were uncovered beneath the topsoil layer.
Monitoring of groundworks associated with the installation of the house’s septic tank and percolation system was undertaken in October 2011. The tank and percolation trenches were located to the north of the house, between it and the adjacent fortified house. The stratigraphy uncovered during the installation for the septic system was similar to that uncovered in the area of the house. A single sherd of medieval Leinster Ware pottery was recovered from the deposit of basal ploughsoil in this area. Unlike the small abraded sherds recovered from the house area, this sherd (rimsherd with pie-crust decoration measuring 0.082m in length) did not appear to have been ploughed around the site and was probably quite close to its original place of deposition.
Stafford McLoughlin Archaeology, Park, Bree, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford
