County: Kildare Site name: BARNHALL
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 11:31 Licence number: 97E0175
Author: Margaret Gowen
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 698809m, N 735548m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.360892, -6.515524
Archaeological test-trenching was carried out on a site at Barnhall, in the lands of Rinwade House, which lies to the west of Leixlip, Co. Kildare. In the event, the site was shown to be that of a natural spring with an associated area of soil variation. The SMR location indicates that the feature noted on aerial photography crosses the line of the field boundary. For this reason both sides were investigated.
The site lies in an area of relatively flat land with a slight, though noticeable, fall in ground towards the west. Rising ground to the north and west of the supposed location of this site, on the western side of the field boundary, forms a slight ridge-like prominence, suggestive of a possible, very low, earthwork. Intensive cultivation over low earthworks can give rise to features surviving in this manner. Prior to commencing work on the site, conversation with the landowner suggested that the feature noted on the photograph was unlikely to have an archaeological derivation. He described how the area had always been wet and that it was their understanding that a natural spring occurred in that location; the site had been drained and the field boundary (a wet ditch) had been cleared out and opened up in recent years. Springs of this kind are quite common in the boulder clays with underlying limestone rock of counties Meath, Kildare and Dublin, and they often give rise to a change in vegetation which has a circular formation around the source of the spring.
The profiles revealed in three trenches were natural, and the location has no evident archaeological potential. There are no archaeological implications, therefore, in respect of the features.
Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin
