County: Kildare Site name: CELBRIDGE: Main Street
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 11:01201 Licence number: 97E0122
Author: Dominic Delany
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 697328m, N 733176m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.339861, -6.538490
Archaeological test excavation was carried out in advance of a proposed extension to an existing licensed premises at Main Street, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, in April 1997. Celbridge, a village on the River Liffey in north-east Kildare, derives its name from Cill Droichead or 'the church of the bridge'. It was the site of an Early Christian foundation and later became an Anglo-Norman borough. A medieval parish church stands on the site of the Early Christian church and the present church road clearly reflects the line of the original ecclesiastical enclosure. Nothing is known of the earliest bridge or its medieval successors.
The site of the proposed development is located in the centre of the modern town and covers an area measuring approximately 45m north-south by 65m east-west. Five test-trenches were mechanically excavated. Dark greyish-brown sandy clays with inclusions of stone, brick, slate, concrete, mortar and flecks of charcoal and lime overlay naturally occurring yellowish-brown silty clays, which were encountered at an average depth of 0.6m. No archaeological deposits or features were encountered.
20–21 Main Street, Portlaoise, Co. Laois
