County: Wicklow Site name: KINDLESTOWN UPPER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Andrew Halpin, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 727274m, N 712159m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.144735, -6.097458
In June and July 1991 Archaeological Development Services Ltd. carried out an archaeological site assessment on behalf of T.J. Tracey and Son Ltd. at Kindlestown Upper, Delgany. The site includes the remains of Kindlestown Castle, a National Monument of medieval date, and it was because of this that preliminary archaeological site assessment was a condition of the planning permission for a proposed housing development on the site. The possibility of associated settlement in the vicinity of the castle was the primary object of the investigation.
Kindlestown Castle is thought to be of 13th-century date, but little is known of its history or of any associated settlement. A map of Delgany surveyed in 1775 shows the castle with a cluster of houses beside it, apparently to the north or north-east. This seemed to indicate some form of settlement around the castle, possibly of medieval origin. If there was some form of village settlement on the site in 1775, it had vanished by the time of the Ordnance Survey First Edition in 1838.
The results of the assessment trenches, however, indicated no significant archaeological deposits on the site. Field ditches and building debris were noted, but in all cases were of relatively recent date and no trace of any earlier features was visible. Indeed, the building debris may well derive from the buildings depicted on the 1775 map, or their successors. On the basis of the evidence currently available, therefore, one must conclude that the settlement shown on the Baker estate map in 1775, if such it was, was a relatively modern (and apparently short-lived) phenomenon. Activities such as ploughing and potato cultivation (which according to local sources went on the site until quite recently) may have destroyed archaeological stratigraphy. On the basis of the assessment, however, there is no reason at present to believe that any significant archaeological deposits or features are present on the site.
The Power House, Pigeon House Harbour, Dublin 4
