County: Dublin Site name: BALLYCOOLEN INDUSTRIAL PARK, Blanchardstown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 014:025 Licence number: 94E0130
Author: Margaret Gowen
Site type: Mound
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 709427m, N 740924m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.407103, -6.354214
Due to the presence of a recorded moat on the site, the planning decision included a condition requiring that it be "..preserved and landscaped..". The site is listed in the County Development Plan.
The moat was a well-defined mound, roughly 20-25m in diameter and over 2m high. It lay along an obvious ridge in the landscape, which while generally fairly flat has occasional hummocks of this type, but not of such height. In the near vicinity of the site there are three such mounds, one of which was excavated by Paddy Healy in the early 1970s, within the Dublin Corporation dump complex at Dunsink; it produced the remains of Food Vessel cist burials and was interpreted as a multiple cist cairn dating to the Bronze Age.
There was very good reason, therefore, to suppose that this feature had an archaeological significance, even if it was not entirely artificial (many of these sites can comprise an existing hummock which has been slightly artificially raised or shaped).
The archaeological assessment was undertaken at first to assess the archaeological potential of the ground surrounding the moat to establish an area of interest or zone of archaeological potential around it. The investigation involved the inspection of seven 0.8m-wide mechanically-excavated slit trenches, four long trenches cut radially around the periphery of the mound and three shorter trenches opened on the mound itself.
Without exception, all trenches revealed a natural soil profile. The mound is a natural one, apparently rising over a cone of rock some 3-3.5m beneath the original summit level.
Further to the assessment trenching, the upper portion of the mound was mechanically removed under archaeological supervision to ensure that no archaeological features had been inserted into it even though it is a natural feature. In spite of its morphology and possible parallels in the near vicinity the moat has been shown to have been a natural feature without archaeological significance.
Rath House, Ferndale Rd, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
