What is recorded here

Coghlanstown East and Coghlanstown West may have marked the Pale boundary when Parliament designated the route in 1488. Excavations for a gas pipeline revealed field fences with bank and ditch sections but no palisade trench, suggesting the line was more administrative than militaristic. The earthwork likely separated jurisdictions rather than defended against invasion, shaping local identity through paperwork and permission rather than warfare.

The Pale boundary may have passed through the townlands of Coghlanstown East and Coghlanstown West if it followed the route designated by Parliament in 1488: 'from Merrion inclusive to the waters of the Dodder, by the new ditch to Saggard, Rathcoole, Kilheel (Kilteel), Rathmore and Ballymore (Eustace), thence to the county of Kildare into Ballycutlan (Coghlanstown), Harristown and Naas, and so thence to Clane, Kilboyne, and Kilcock' (Mc Neill 1950, 250). Excavations in advance of the laying of the Cork-Dublin natural gas pipeline laying revealed field fences with bank and ditch sections, but no visible traces of a palisade trench (O'Donnell 1983, 309). Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 06 July 2012

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.