County: Dublin Site name: NANGOR CASTLE, Clondalkin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0273
Author: Cia McConway, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Castle - unclassified
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 704428m, N 731226m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.320994, -6.432568
Trial-trenching in the vicinity of the now-demolished castle and eighteenth-century house produced evidence for a substantial ditch and an associated shallower linear feature. Neither feature produced any datable artefacts but had silted up with a series of organic-rich clays with animal bone, shell and matted grass-possibly bedding material.
Trial-trenching continued in the field bounding the castle site to its south, after an extensive geophysical survey had been carried out. Results from these cuttings suggest widespread archaeology surviving below the ploughsoil. Several lignite cores and slivers, early medieval pottery and metal slag were all retrieved both from the trenches and from field-walking, suggesting a date in at least the early medieval period- twelfth/thirteenth century. Several trenches cut through a large ditch located on both the east and west of the field, which apparently substantiated the impression, given from the overall lie of the land, that the field had contained a ploughed-out rath or ring-ditch. Human skeletal remains were also uncovered, as were numerous charcoal-flecked irregular features. Other than some cutting into the ditch, the trench went no deeper once in situ archaeology was reached.
Power House, Pigeon House Harbour, Dublin 4
