1998:689 - DUNLAVIN: Market Square, Wicklow

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Wicklow Site name: DUNLAVIN: Market Square

Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 15:16 Licence number: 98E0547

Author: Clare Mullins

Site type: Historic town

Period/Dating: Multi-period

ITM: E 687069m, N 701695m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.058796, -6.701075

An archaeological evaluation was carried out at a site in Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow, on 21 November 1998. Planning permission had been granted for the construction of two small blocks of apartments to the rear of the gardens associated with the buildings that front onto Market Square. An archaeological condition within the grant of planning had requested archaeological testing of the site following demolition and in advance of construction works.

It was clear from the general appearance of the development site that it had long been in use for yards and outbuildings. Several old stone outbuildings are still extant in the general area, and the lower courses of the walls of other buildings, which have been demolished, exist in the immediate vicinity of the development site.

Two test-trenches were inserted, one each across the approximate central longitudinal axis of each of the proposed apartment blocks.

A number of features were identified during the course of test-trenching. A stone-and-mortar wall, which crossed the line of Trench 1 at a right angle, was 0.3m–0.4m wide. It could be seen to rest directly upon the natural and survived to a height of only 0.2m. The other stone wall appeared to be more substantial but had been obscured by what was probably a modern stone sump to its immediate south-west. While a number of dilapidated stone walls and extant stone buildings exist in the immediate area of the development site, neither of these stone walls appear to be associated with any of the existing walls. Another featured identified during testing may represent a medieval drain that led from the street from c.70m to the south-east. The general impression from this feature was of a U-shaped linear cut. It had a minimum depth of 0.5m beneath the surface of the natural. Its fill produced animal bone, red brick, timber fragments and charcoal. These inclusions would most likely date the obsolescence of the feature.

Archaeological monitoring was recommended for the groundworks stage of the development.

39 Kerdiff Park, Monread, Naas, Co. Kildare