1998:128 - CHERRYWOOD AND LAUGHANSTOWN, Dublin

Archaeological monitoring was carried out on a 5ha site at Cherrywood and Laughanstown, Co. Dublin, in advance of topsoil-stripping associated with a housing development. Eleven sites were identified during the monitoring, in addition to those revealed during 1997 (Excavations 1997, 25–6). They ranged in date from the prehistoric to the post-medieval period and varied in function from cremation burials to hearths. The sites were identified through the presence of charcoal and dated by association or morphology. Intensive agricultural activity was carried on throughout the stripped area, and all of the sites were truncated by ploughing. The sites identified were all cut features, and no linear stratified deposits survived above the old ground surface, with the exception of Site O, which survived in a slight depression.

Prehistoric cremation burials: sites I, L, P and R
Four pits containing cremated human bone were identified during monitoring. All of the sites lay along the spine of a ridge that runs north-west/south-east. Sites L and R contained a large quantity of cremated human bone. Sites I and P contained token cremated remains. Three of the sites (I, L and R) lay within 60m of each other at the south-eastern end of the ridge. Site P lay 320m to the north-west and was an isolated burial. The burials consisted of simple pits c. 0.5m in diameter and 0.4m deep filled with cremated bone and charcoal; no pottery or other finds were associated with the burials. Large areas surrounding the burials were cleaned back with a mechanical excavator, but no further burials were revealed.

Prehistoric pits: sites H, J, M, N and Q
These sites were identified as darker soils overlying the glacial boulder clay that covers the hillside. In all cases the soils contained charcoal and were deposited into features cut into the boulder clay. The features were initially dated to the prehistoric period by the association of worked flint, including debitage and work tools, such as the flint scraper found adjacent to Site N and the sherds of coarseware retrieved from the fill in Site H. The features found at Site N may be tree-root balls. Recent arable activity (ploughing) has removed the original ground surface; hence the features are all truncated.

Post-medieval hearth and cobbling: sites K and O
These sites were identified by the presence of dark soils overlying the boulder clay on the ridge. In all cases the soils contained burnt cinders surviving in features cut into the boulder clay. Ploughing had completely removed the original ground surface, with the exception of a small area in an infilled hollow on the hillside excavated at Site O.

Rath House, Ferndale Road, Rathmichael, Co. Dublin