2025:058 - WALTERSTOWN AND COONMORE, Wicklow
County: Wicklow
Site name: WALTERSTOWN AND COONMORE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A
Licence number: 25E0237
Author: Yvonne Whitty
Author/Organisation Address: Unit 10 Riverside Business Centre Tinahely Co Wicklow
Site type: Cremation pit
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 697401m, N 704016m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.077863, -6.546304
A total of 1251m of test trenches were excavated under archaeological supervision on 24 and 25 March 2025 in the townlands of Walterstown and Coonmore, Hollywood, Co. Wicklow. Three cremation pits, which contained abundant burnt bone, were uncovered and a potential fourth burial was also uncovered. One of the pits, which was wheel-rut damaged from farming activities, appeared to be very shallow, 0.01m in depth. The cremation burials were clustered in groups of two encompassing an area 5.2m north to south by 1.1m.
Four archaeological features were subsequently excavated, consisting of three cremation burial pits (C7, C8 and C10) and a fourth pit feature (C9) which contained charcoal but no cremated bone and may represent a token cremation or cenotaph, where bones were removed or an empty funeral pyre was burnt.
All deposits associated with the features (C3, C4, C5 and C6) were 100% sampled and subject to specialist analysis including charcoal identification, osteological examination of cremated bone, burnt bone analysis and radiocarbon dating.
The cremated human remains recovered from the burial pits were in moderate to poor preservation and represent small quantities of bone, suggesting that the features likely represent token cremation burials rather than complete cremation deposits. Osteological analysis confirmed that the remains derive from adult individuals, although the fragmentary nature of the material prevented determination of biological sex.
Charcoal analysis indicates that oak was the dominant fuel used for the cremation pyres, with small quantities of hazel and holly also identified. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from cremation pit C10 indicates that the cremation activity took place during the Middle Bronze Age (UBA-58088, 3086 +-24, two sigma calibration 1419-1279 BC).
The features represent isolated Bronze Age funerary activity, most likely forming part of a small cremation burial site or flat cemetery within the wider prehistoric landscape of west Wicklow.