County: Dublin Site name: OLD BAWN ROAD, Tallaght
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Margaret Gowen
Site type: Habitation site
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 709409m, N 727037m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.282356, -6.359283
Test trenching on this site, in advance of development of the new college building, examined all areas in which topsoil was to be removed and reduction in ground level was proposed. Several long radial trenches were also cut to trace the supposed north-eastern line of the Early Christian ecclesiastical boundary extending from the west side of St Maelrun's Church. The work was carried out over two weeks during early January 1990.
No remains of the Early Christian enclosure were encountered in the area tested and it is now thought that the enclosure may not have been as large as previously thought.
During the examination of parallel test trenches, beneath the site of the proposed college building, several enigmatic features of medieval date, including a hearth and associated floor, and a number of gullies, were noted and subsequently excavated. There was insufficient evidence to interpret the remains. A number of medieval finds were recovered. These included a bronze stick pin with a watch-winder head and over fifty sherds of Dublin-manufactured glazed and unglazed pottery dating from the 13th-15th century, the majority from coarse, unglazed cooking pots. Also recovered were a small tanged knife, three iron nails, iron slag and two furnace bottoms. Animal bone recovered was insufficient for statistical examination. Cattle, sheep, pig, dog and cat were represented.
5 St. Catherine's Road, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
