1993:128 - CASTLEBROWN/CLONGOWES, Kildare

An archaeological watching brief was maintained on the construction of a sewage pipeline within the grounds of Clongowes Wood College, Clane, Co. Kildare. The work was carried out to fulfil the conditions of the planning approval for the scheme which requested supervision of ".. all ground excavations and trenches at two points (a) between F6 and F10 which crosses the probable line of the Pale (SMR 14:8) and (b) between the proposed pumping station just beyond F10 and the Golymochy river (beside SMR 14:11)..." (SMR 14:11 is a cropmark site. It lies some 20m south of the pipeline. A second cropmark site SMR 10 lies some 150m to the north of the pipeline).

Clongowes Wood College lies 1.5 miles north of Clane, County Kildare, in good pasture land which is fairly flat, broken by occasional kames. The area of Kildare that includes Clane came under the control of the Anglo-Normans some time before 1173 when the land was granted to one Adam de Hereford, who sub-infeudated it to his brother Richard.

The Pale
The Pale boundary earthwork was built under an act of Poyning's Parliament in 1494 which decreed that the 1488 boundary was to be enclosed with "a double ditch of six-foot of earth above the ground". It is accepted that the section of earthworks at Clongowes Wood College is a well-preserved example of the Pale boundary.

The Pale earthwork it not morphologically uniform as shown by the profiles of the earthwork at Clongowes and at Cupidstown near Kilteel, nine miles to the south east. The excavation at Cupidstown revealed a palisade trench along the top of the bank (O'Donnell, M., 1987 in Cleary R.M., Hurley M.F., Twohig E.A. (eds.) 'Archaeological Excavations on the Cork-Dublin Gas Pipeline' (1981-2), 110 fig. 19.5).

In the area of Clongowes Wood College, the Pale boundary survives as a bank with a footpath along the top and flanked by ditches. Two very well-preserved portions of the Pale survive, one on the north and a second on the south of the college buildings.

The northern portion (SMR 14: 8/10:21) measures some 550m in length. It is seen as a substantial bank with a pathway on top and with ditches on either side. In general the bank is some 3m-3.5m and sometimes 4m in width and survives up to 0.75m above the surrounding field level. The ditches, which have probably been repeatedly re-cut, now have depths of 1m-1.5m below field level.

The southern portion runs into the college grounds from the Commons of Clane for some 500m to the lawn of the college at which point it was levelled. It is not consistent in profile but has maximum dimensions similar to those described above.

The pipeline
The pipeline runs from the rear of the college to the L25 road and the local authority sewer at Loughbollard, Clane.

The soil profile along most of this section is 0.25m - 0.35m of brown topsoil and the subsoil below it to the bottom of the trench varied between a yellow/grey silt and a sticky grey silt, interspersed with areas of gravel and occasional large boulders.

The field to the south of the pipeline, in which SMR 14:11 lies, was separated from the pipeline route by a substantial bank and ditched field boundary. It was under cultivation at the time.

The pipeline breach through the Pale was taken through an existing gateway and bridge built by the college for access to the field. The sewer trench was therefore cut through a very disturbed portion of the monument.

The section showed the construction of the bridge and none of the original monument was revealed. The ditches had been re-cut to insert drains. Some of the slabs used to build the drain under the bridge in the west ditch are re-used from a building destroyed in 1929 so the bridge was built after that date. A ceramic drain, c. 0.3m in diameter, was inserted in the smaller, east ditch, under the bridge.

Since the section was unsatisfactory, a profile was taken 4m to the north of the breach at an area of least vegetal overgrowth (the monument is covered largely with thorn trees). The earthwork had a total width of 8.5m and the ground level rises from the west to the east. The larger and deeper west ditch, deepened for use as a drain, is 2m wide tapering to a V-profile and is 1.18m deep (below the west field). The bank, with a flat top almost 2m wide, rises 2.2m above the bottom of the west ditch and 1.5m above the west field. The east ditch is c. 2.5m wide, has a round profile, is 1.5m deep below the top of the bank and less than 1m below ground level at the east side, but this area is disturbed.

No archaeological features or soils were noted on the stripped portion of the pipeline or in the pipe trench. Examination of the breach through the Pale rampart yielded no archaeological information and there were no small finds. The construction of the pipeline had a minimal impact on the Pale rampart and did not yield any evidence for archaeological features linked to the site SMR 14:11.

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