First recorded on the 1839 Ordnance Survey map, this earthwork appears as an irregular, roughly rectangular enclosure measuring approximately 75 metres east to west and 55 metres north to south. The site occupies a gentle north-facing slope, with the Ballyedmond River flowing about 140 metres to the north, a strategic position that would have provided both water access and defensive advantages to its medieval inhabitants.

Though centuries of agricultural use have rendered the site nearly invisible at ground level, historical surveys tell a different story. When examined in the 1940s, researchers could still detect faint traces of the earthen banks that once defined this fortified homestead. These moated sites, common throughout medieval Ireland, typically consisted of a raised platform surrounded by a water-filled ditch and an outer bank, creating a defendable space for a farmstead or small manor house. The moat served multiple purposes; providing defence against raiders, drainage for the central platform, and a ready source of water and fish.

Today, whilst sheep and cattle graze peacefully over the pasture where this fortification once stood, the site remains an important piece of Wexford’s archaeological heritage. Listed in Terry Barry’s 1977 survey of Irish moated sites, Coolharbour represents one of hundreds of similar earthworks scattered across the Irish landscape, silent witnesses to a time when even prosperous farmers needed to think about defence. These sites remind us that medieval Ireland was a frontier society where agricultural wealth required physical protection, and where the landscape itself was shaped by the constant balance between prosperity and security.