Town defences in Cooltedery

Town of Portarlington was previously known as the town of Cooletodderie as mentioned in 1571 Elizabethan land grant to Owen mac Hugh O'Dempsie and described as containing 80 acres, which lieth southwest from the River of the Barough, and abutteth upon the town and lands called Bracklone East' (O'Flanagan 1933, vol. 2, p. 51) The town is named after its founder Sir Henry Bennet, lord Arlington (Bradley 1986, p. 42). In 1666 Charles II granted large tracts of O'Dempseys land which formed the manor of Portarlington and created the borough with a corporation, weekly market and two yearly fairs (Cal. State Papers, 1666-9, pp. 220-2). This new town may have been superimposed on an earlier settlement at Cooltedery mentioned in 1571. The town grew rapidly and formed its basic layout by 1678 when it is shown in a map now in the Nat. Library of Ireland (Feehan 1983, p. 393). The town was laid out by George Rawdon and was fortified with a moat that enclosed the town and was surrounded on all sides by water. The River Barrow enclosed three sides of the town from W through N to E and by a moat on the south side. The plan of the town shows triangular shaped bastions on the NE and NW angles of the town suggesting that the town was enclosed by a earthen fort with two angle bastions on North side only and enclosed by a water-filled moat fed from the River Barrow on S side and defended by River Barrow on E and W sides. The four streets radiating out from the market square were called King Street running westwards towards the bridge over the Barrow River, Bennet street ran North from the square, James Street ran out Eastwards and Queene Street that ran out southwards. One of these angle towers may have been known as 'Katherine's tower', one seventeenth century account from 1666 describes that houses shall be built 'without the fortification on the East side, which shall front towards the new channel, on either sides of the way leading from New Channel Bridge to Katherine's tower and on either side of the road leading from the great bridge to Charlestown' (Bradley 1986, p. 43). No surface remains of town defences survive. Test excavation (Nat. Grid Ref. 25426 21265) was undertaken on the site of a proposed apartment block development at French Church Street, Portarlington, Co. Laois, on 21 March 2001 (Licence No. 99E0281 ext.). The development site is within the zone of archaeological potential in Portarlington as defined in the Urban Archaeology Survey of County Laois (OPW, 1986). It lies on the east bank of a bend in the River Barrow at the north-west end of the town. A 17th-century map of the town shows that the rampart defences traversed the proposed development site from south-west to north-east, and an angle bastion stood at the north-west end of the site. Four 20m-long trenches were excavated on the footprint of the proposed development. The stratigraphy was similar in each of the trenches. Modern topsoil overlay a mixed landfill layer, which varied in thickness from 0.05m at the south-east end of the site to 1.4m at the north-west end. This fill was brought onto the site about 30 years ago in order to raise the ground level, which falls quite sharply towards the river on the north-west side of the site. The landfill overlay the original topsoil, moderately compact dark reddish-brown silty sand. It had an average thickness of 0.15m and overlay a thin layer of mixed sand and gravel with inclusions of brick, mortar, shell and pottery. This gravel deposit post-dates the destruction of the town defences. It overlay a post-medieval layer, possibly levelled rampart material, consisting of mixed grey, light brown and red clayey sand containing gravel and small stones. There were occasional inclusions of bone, shell, brick and mortar, and finds included occasional post-medieval pottery sherds, glass fragments and clay pipe stem fragments. The post-medieval layer sealed and formed the fill of a 4-5m-wide flat-bottomed cut, which was discovered in Trenches 2, 3 and 4. It extends north-east/south-west across the site and runs parallel to the riverbank. This feature appears to be associated with the 17th-century town defences. The natural ground falls sharply towards the river beyond the north-west edge of this cut. The rampart probably stood on the higher ground immediately south-east of the cut, where a natural sand, gravel and stone deposit was encountered close to the existing site surface. The test excavation indicates that the site contains a post-medieval cut and deposit, probably associated with the 17th-century town defences. It is possible that the cut relates to the rampart construction phase and the deposit may represent levelled rampart material. It would appear that the town fortifications were levelled at a relatively early period, probably in the 18th century (Bennett 2003, 223). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 17 December 2007