2019:304 - BALLYCOOLIN, Dublin

The licence was applied for to test this site prior to development. Originally considered to be a greenfield site with archaeological potential it soon became apparent that the development site had been widely used as a landfill for construction and demolition waste. It is likely that areas were originally stripped of topsoil prior to the dumping of waste on the site. The site has also been used to stockpile stone and gravel. The easternmost haul road is well trafficked and continues to be in service while the western appears currently disused. Because of the use of the development site as a landfill it is difficult to establish whether the original ground level survives anywhere on the site. The most likely area to be original lies securely within the buffer zone for the 110KV lines and not accessible for testing. The level of impacts across the site made archaeological testing inconclusive as it was not possible to determine the impacts within the natural subsoil and in the absence of a stratified sod layer and/or topsoil layer it is fair to assume that these layers were removed. No archaeology was found.