County: Kildare Site name: HEWLETT PACKARD SITE, Leixlip
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0172
Author: Thaddeus C. Breen
Site type: Earthwork and Mound
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 700501m, N 735912m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.363843, -6.490003
This area is being developed as a factory complex by Hewlett Packard. Four sites identified during a paper survey and field inspection were excavated. They were numbered 2–5; Site 1 was found to be a natural feature when the vegetation was cleared.
Site 2, in Parsonstown, appeared in aerial photographs as a circular outline in the grass. On the ground it appeared as a flat area with one or two barely discernible depressions. A detailed contour survey showed these to be rather irregular. Four cuttings were opened across the site, but the only features revealed were two parallel shallow linear features which were filled with material similar to the topsoil and contained modern glass and ceramics. They were obviously modern drainage or cultivation features. There was one find from the topsoil: a small axehead made of mudstone.
Site 3, in Barnhall, was a raised area which on three sides resembled a mound but had only a slight slope on the north side, where the surrounding ground was at a higher level. Excavation showed that the topsoil, a 0.2m-deep layer of fairly featureless brown soil, overlay stony yellow clay containingsome large chunks of rock, suggesting that the bedrock was quite close to the surface. It would appear, therefore, that the feature was a soil-covered rock outcrop.
Sites 4 and 5, in Rinawade Upper, appeared in the aerial photographs as two sets of approximately circular or oval cropmarks. Excavation revealed nothing of significance, but in one of the areas in Site 4 the topsoil appeared to be thinner, and a French drain was found in Site 5. A worked flint flake was found in Site 4, but it was in the topsoil with modern material.
13 Wainsfort Crescent, Dublin 6W, for Project Director Valerie J. Keeley
