County: Kildare Site name: KILL
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 93E0059
Author: Eoin Halpin, A.D.S. Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 694130m, N 722928m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.248371, -6.589538
The pre-development testing took place over a two-day period, 22nd and 23rd April l993. In all six trenches were examined, covering the main areas to be disturbed by the development, while at the same time addressing the archaeological constraints outlined by Kildare County Council and the Office of Public Works in response to the planning application.
The proposed development site measures some 75m north-south by 85m east-west and is situated immediately to the west and south-west of the parish church of St Mary and Brigid. This 19th-century building is built on the site of the medieval parish church and may in turn be located on an earlier pre-Norman ecclesiastical site and enclosure.
Little of archaeological note was uncovered during the trial trenching. Evidence for activity in the area dating to the medieval period was uncovered in the form of a small number of pottery fragments, but these came from top soil contexts, the soil of which is known to have been imported onto the site from elsewhere.
No evidence survives for the graveyard associated with the parish church ever extending beyond the line of the present boundary wall. However, agricultural activity to the west and land fill to the south may have either scarped away or covered up any such evidence. In any event the development will not encroach close to the graveyard.
There was no evidence along the northern perimeter of the site for the existence of a bank or ditch associated with an enclosure. Indeed, the northern end of the site appears to have been heavily landscaped, possibly in advance of improvements to the main street of the village. Finally, although the western side of the area contains evidence of activity in the form of a cobbled yard and possible ditch feature, these do not appear archaeologically significant.
Powerhouse, Pigeon House Harbour, Dublin 4
