What is recorded here

Moneycooly in County Kildare held two adjacent bowl furnaces, one sixty-six centimetres wide and the other ninety, both cut deep enough to hold glowing charcoal and molten metal slag. They lay beside a charcoal-rich hearth, waiting beneath the soil where people may have smelted tools or trimmed bright edges before burial grounds and housing estates claimed the same ground. The furnaces did not need a monument because their shape still records the heat they once held.

In 2004, in advance of the construction of a large housing estate, archaeological test trenching (Duffy C. Excavation Licence No. 04E0644) followed by monitoring of topsoil-stripping over the entire site resulted in the discovery and excavation of two bowl furnaces (KD011-061----) and, c. 100m to the WNW, a small burial ground (KD010-040----). Two adjacent bowl furnaces, with diameters of 0.66m and 0.9m and depths of 0.37m and 0.45m respectively, contained metal slag and charcoal. Nearby was a hearth, comprising a charcoal-rich deposit, 0.7m by 0.52m and 0.05m thick, over oxidised subsoil. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 11 January 2013

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.