What is recorded here

Coolmucky holds a rectangular moated site where a narrow stream still forces its way through a silted fosse. Windele walked the damp earth in 1849 and found double ramparts marking a boundary that human hands had shaped long before him. Gold-seekers had already scarred the northeast quadrant, proving the place attracted greed as much as curiosity. The water remembers the shape of the ditch even when the soil forgets the names of those who dug it.

On SE-facing slope, within deciduous plantation. Roughly rectangular area (51m E-W; 37m N-S) enclosed by inner earthen bank (int. H 0.8m; ext. H 2.2m to base of fosse); intervening fosse; outer earth and stone bank (int. H 2.4m to base of fosse; ext. H 0.9m) on S and W sides. Entrance to W with break in both banks (Wth c. 2.4m); second break at NW corner. Fosse narrow and V-shaped on S side; flat bottomed and broad on W side; largely silted up on N side; shallow, flat-bottomed and broad on E side. Interior slopes gently down to E, planted with deciduous trees. Leat leads water into fosse at NW corner, exiting in centre of E side and at SE corner. Outer bank shown on all sides on 1935 OS 6-inch map. Site visited by Windele (1898, 54) on April 18th 1849; he describes a double-ramparted square fort, a deep wet fosse through which runs a small stream and evidence of digging in NE quadrant of interior by 'gold-seekers'. Listed by Barry (1981, 83, no. 25). Fulacht fiadh (10590) c. 20m to NW. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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