2024:785 - Mooretown, Swords, Dublin

The proposed development area and wider development lands lie within the now lapsed Oldtown-Mooretown Local Area Plan (LAP) (2010, extended to 2020) located on either side of the Rathbeale Road within the townlands of Rathbeal, Oldtown and Mooretown. As part of the former LAP process, the application lands have been subjected to several phases of licenced non-invasive and invasive archaeological assessments comprising desk studies, field walkover surveys, licenced geophysical surveys, and test excavations. The focus of the earlier investigations was to provide a detailed archaeological assessment for consideration in the development of a planning strategy for the LAP. The most significant result of these investigations was the identification of a previously unknown extensive early medieval ecclesiastical complex, a religious site with burials and settlements dating to the first millennium AD (RMP DU011-144001/004). This complex is entirely subsurface, with no remains above ground, and appears only as natural ridges within green fields. It extends from the southern part of Oldtown, into the northern part of Mooretown (into the subject lands). The complex is cut by the Rathbeale Road, and separated into two different townlands. In addition to the ecclesiastical complex at Oldtown-Mooretown, further significant unrecorded archaeological sites were discovered within the Mooretown lands, including a water mill, a medieval settlement in the vicinity of what is known as Glasmore Abbey (RMP DU011-019), a fulacht fiadh (RMP DU011-148), a natural spring source for the recorded holy well (RMP DU011-018), and a possible ringfort (RMP DU011-147).
The archaeological investigations identified previously unknown subsurface archaeological sites and features with no above-ground representation and established the plan-form extent of these sites. The definition of these sites has led to a comprehensive understanding of the archaeological landscape within the receiving environment. It has enabled a considered strategy for the preservation in situ and protection of significant archaeological remains to be put in place across a series of linked archaeological parks and open spaces, including interpretative signage.

Archaeological testing was carried out in two areas not previously investigated in advance of a residential development:

Field 13 lies within the zone of notification (ZoN) of RMP DU011-144004, an early medieval field system associated with the Oldtown ecclesiastical enclosure (RMP DU011-144001). The previous geophysical survey for the LAP lands appears to have captured the full extent of this site, and subsequent testing (08E0303) indicated that the remains corresponded with the geophysical survey. The close correspondence between the geophysical results and the archaeology confirmed during testing enabled the identification of an archaeologically sensitive area or risk zone. This zone included the locations of identified archaeology, cross-referenced with landscape topography and with the extent of related geophysical anomalies. The findings suggested that the archaeology is concentrated on the western side of the field, on the top of the natural hill (and includes a natural paleochannel). Five archaeological test trenches were opened on the eastern side of the ZoN,  which confirmed that the field system recorded in Field 13 is concentrated on the western side of the field, on top of the natural hill and does not extend beyond the features indicated in the geophysical survey and previous testing.

Six archaeological test trenches were opened in Field 1, where no previous investigations had been carried out. The field was the site of a 20th-century farmhouse.  These trenches did not reveal any features or finds of archaeological significance.