1997:087 - GRANGE CASTLE BUSINESS PARK, KILMAHUDDRICK, CLONDALKIN, Dublin

Monitoring and excavation were undertaken in advance of the construction of an access road and the excavation of foul sewers for a Business Park at Grange Castle. The excavation work continued until February 1998. Documentary evidence is scarce for Nangor Castle, but it is known that a castle stood on the site in the 16th century. Grange Castle is an upstanding 15th-century tower-house. It is proposed to develop an industrial park in this area.

Previous archaeological assessment by Cia Mc Conway (Excavations 1996, 17, 96E273, and Excavations 1997, No. 86) and geophysical survey by A. Mc Cleary, ADS Ltd, in February 1997 established that the area was archaeologically sensitive.

In advance of construction of a site access road topsoil was stripped from a 24m-wide area by mechanical excavator, under archaeological supervision, for a distance of 480m northwards from the Nangor Road. A further strip, 6m wide and 1300m long, was excavated for the sewers. The full 24m-wide strip was excavated in the field adjacent to Grange Castle.

All archaeological features uncovered had been truncated by deep ploughing, resulting in the removal of all but subsurface features cut into natural boulder clay.

A curving ditch was identified in Field 1; it terminated at Nangor Road, and was orientated north-east/south-west. It was 30m in length, 0.8–0.9m deep, and 1.2–2.4m wide. The eastern terminus continued beyond the limits of the excavation. The upper fills contained charcoal, mortar, flint and animal bones, and were aceramic. A decorated bone comb, stick-pin and knife gave the later ditch phase a terminus ante quem of from the 12th to the 13th century AD.

A stone causeway, 0.5–0.6m wide and 0.06–0.1m deep, crossed the ditch. The existence of this ditch had been shown in McConway's assessment.

Field 7 is located between Grange Castle and the Kilmahuddrick Housing Estate. Two curving ditches were identified in this field. One was found under a post-medieval stone and brick trackway. It was 51m in length and varied in width from 1.1m to 1.4m, and in depth from 0.3m to 0.4m. A stone causeway, 0.6–0.84m wide, crossed it towards the western side of Field 7. No datable finds came from the primary fills of the ditch, but the secondary fills consisted of charcoal-rich clays with animal bones. It continued beyond the limits of the excavation at its western end.

A second ditch was found 1.6m east of the eastern terminus of the first. No archaeological features or deposits were found in this gap. The second ditch closely resembled the first; it was 22m long, 2m wide and 0.5–0.6m deep. The primary fills were sterile apart from some animal bone. The secondary fills consisted of charcoal-rich clays in which were found animal bones, mortar, two metal knives, and a fragment of worked lignite. An incomplete one-sided decorated bone comb and fragments of another in the upper fills gave a terminus ante quem of the 12th to 13th century AD. This ditch continued beyond the limits of excavation at its eastern end. The evidence from Field 7 suggests that extensive early medieval and post-medieval activity survives in this area; the ditches can be interpreted as medieval field boundaries.

A pit that contained a deposit of iron slag was found in Field 2, north of the site of Nangor Castle; it was associated with post-holes and stake-holes, though no structural pattern could be discerned.

Elsewhere various pits, hearths, furrows and field drains were recorded; some of the hearths may be prehistoric in date.

Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3