Habitation site in Cappoge — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Half-buried beneath modern tarmacs and forgotten fields, Cappoge held a sprawling medieval life where stone walls and timber frames rose beside busy lanes. People walked those roads, tended crops, and dressed for visits with imported buckles and fine brooches while local clay pots held their daily meals. The castle still stands as a marker, but the true wonder is the vanished neighbourhood that breathed around it, its kitchens smoking and children running between enclosures before history swallowed the details.

Excavation (Licence nos. 06E0288ext. and 08E0032ext.) undertaken at the site in advance of the Ballycoolin road realignment indicated that it was used for domestic occupation and agricultural activity during the medieval period. Ditches, drains, gullies and cobbling were defined by boundary enclosures. Several possible structures were external to the enclosing elements. Local wares dominated the medieval pottery assemblage although there were some imported wares from England and France. A few items of personal dress were recovered including trapezoidal buckles, annular brooches and leather shoe fragments. The features and finds uncovered indicate the site was a large medieval settlement (c. 210m by 120m) on either side of Ballycoolin Road, around the site of Cappogue castle, occupied during the late 12th – 15th centuries (McQuade 2007). Compiled by: Christine Baker Date of upload: 6 February 2015

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