County: Dublin Site name: BALLYMAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Betty O'Brien, for Rathmichael Historical Society
Site type: Church
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 723724m, N 718630m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.203688, -6.147998
The site is located approximately 76m SW of the Early Christian/medieval church of Glen Munire (Ballyman) on the Dublin/Wicklow county border. Originally an Early Christian foundation dedicated to St. Sillan, and attached in pre-Norman times to Glendalough, the church in the early fourteenth century is listed among the possessions of the Knights Templars at their dissolution.
Excavation to date has revealed three phases of activity.
Phase 1: Post-Roman and Early Christian: Corn-drying kiln containing remains of 6-row hulled barley (M. Monk), and hazel charcoal which produced a C14 date in the fifth century A.D. (UB 2663). Elsewhere on site a terminal of a zoomorphic penannular brooch with millifiore setting (c. seventh century) was recovered.
Phase 2: Medieval: Cobbled layer containing evidence of iron smelting and iron working activity for which a thirteenth/fourteenth-century dating is indicated by both the finds and C14 dating (UB2662).
Phase 3: Post-medieval: When phase 2 activity had ceased the site became waterlogged and covered by a layer of fen peat. Early nineteenth -century activity is indicated by the insertion of massive stone 'coffin' drains and later French drains, in order to drain the site.
A final season of excavation is planned for this site. The excavation is funded by the Rathmichael Historical Society.
