County: Wicklow Site name: EAGERS FIELD, Blessington
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 5:21 Licence number: 96E0328
Author: Malachy Conway for Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 698129m, N 714430m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.171298, -6.532248
An archaeological assessment was carried out in advance of a planning application on behalf of Wicklow County Council on an area of approximately 30 acres known as Eagers Field. The proposed development site lies at the north end of the village of Blessington, on the west side of the main Dublin road. A preliminary desk study identified a barrow within the proposed development, around which a 40m buffer zone was placed by the Heritage Service to prohibit development from encroaching on the monument. This buffer zone also applied to the intrusive archaeological assessment.
The test-trenching programme sought to establish whether subsurface remains of archaeological potential existed over the site. Fourteen trenches, covering an area of 1416m2, were mechanically excavated between 28 November and 4 December 1996. Soil profiles varied in depth, a reflection of topographic undulation, though in general dark brown topsoil 0.1m and 0.15m deep overlay graded brown sandy loam, 0.4m and in deep, which sometimes contained a gravel lens. Basal subsoil consisted of yellow-brown or grey-brown sandy clay.
Trenches 1–11 failed to produce features or soils of archaeological potential and no artefacts were revealed. Features recorded within Trenches 1–11 reflect a combination of post-medieval and modern cultivation, drainage, boundary changes and natural soil variations (glacial action).
Trenches 12–13 (which cut across irregular-shaped low mounds) revealed substantial dumps of post-medieval industrial waste in the form of red brick rubble and cinder, most probably from local brick-manufacturing (a number of derelict brick-firing kilns survive to the north of Eagers Field).
Trench 14 examined a large subrectangular enclosure at the western limit of the proposed development area. This revealed a bank of grey-brown compacted soil, 1.13m high and 6.4m wide at its base, lying above grey sandy clay. An external flat-bottomed ditch, 0.88m deep, accompanied the bank, measuring 2.5m across the top and in at the base, and what appears to be an internal sump or drainage channel in excess of 2m deep and 1.9m wide. The area enclosed by the bank and ditch consisted of a sterile horizon of grey-brown soil, 0.4m deep, above grey sandy subsoil.
No features or soils of archaeological potential were revealed in any of the trenches excavated. The area examined represents a small percentage of the overall development proposal and, as a consequence, of the archaeological potential of the site.
Rath House, Ferndale Rd, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
