2024:837 - Rear Bracknagh Road/Main Street, Rathangan, Kildare

A programme of Archaeological Testing was undertaken as part preparation of an Archaeological Impact Assessment of a proposed Residential Development located to the rear of Oakley House, Bracknagh Road and rear of Fullams, Main Street, Rathangan, Co. Kildare.

The proposed development lands are partially located within the RMP Zone established for Rathangan; in addition, the entire site is located within the SMR Zone of Notification indicated in the Historic Environment Viewer (HEV) of the National Monuments Service. Consequently, a preplanning enquiry was submitted to the National Monument Service (NMS), the purpose of which was to determine the nature of any archaeological requirements for inclusion in a proposed Archaeological Impact Assessment. The response from NMS requested that the lands be subjected to a Geophysical Survey and Programme of Archaeological Testing as part of the overall process of Archaeological Assessment.

Urban settlement at Rathangan dates to the medieval period and consequently an RMP Zone has been established for the town – SMR No: KD017-011; the eastern area of the site is located within the extent of the Zone.  In addition, the SMR includes a Designed Landscape Feature (SMR No:  KD017-011005) comprising the remains of a retaining wall with an arched doorway situated within a section of the northern boundary wall to the western and central areas of the site.

Historic research indicates that the lands remained undeveloped until the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, when they were laid out in garden plots with the boundaries largely aligned north-south, apart from the northeast-southwest alignment of the rear gardens to Fullams. Sections of the northern boundary wall were constructed at this time, apart from the section containing the arched doorway and a rounded buttress feature, which, based on cartographic evidence, appear to date to the mid-late nineteenth century.

A limited geophysical survey was undertaken by J.M Leigh Surveys Limited (Ref: 23R0403) within the extent of the site, the results of which indicated that a number of anomalies, of potential archaeological interest, were located within the survey areas.

A programme of Archaeological Testing, comprising the excavation of twenty-one trenches, did not uncover any subsurface features of archaeological interest/potential and no artefacts of historical/archaeological interest were recovered. The foundation remains of former late nineteenth-century structures, the line of a Main Drain and a number of simple garden/field drains, filled with stone and with inclusions of glass and red-brick fragments, were uncovered, together with areas of disturbance related to tree planting, removal and root activity. Much of the southern extent of the western and central areas included a shallow layer of organic, peaty-like material under the topsoil and it was concluded that that topsoil was imported into this area of the site in order to achieve enhanced conditions for garden development.