1999:243 - FINGLAS: Meakstown, Dublin

Testing was undertaken at Meakstown, Finglas, on 23 and 24 September 1999, before a proposed residential development. A previous programme of testing under the same licence was carried out by Nóra Bermingham (No. 242, Excavations 1999)

The testing was undertaken to determine the impact that the proposed residential development would have on the recorded monument SMR 14:20, identified in the Record of Monuments and Places as a 'dwelling site'. This is marked on the archaeological constraint map as being in the north-east corner of Module G of the proposed development, which is currently occupied by an extensive series of farm buildings. This location is based on the 1st edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (1838), which places the legend 'Site of Castle' directly to the south of the roadside farm buildings still visible today, almost exactly in the centre of the present farmyard. This identification is consistent with the OS Name Book for Santry parish, which states: 'the offices and out-houses now stand on the site of Castle which formerly fronted the road'.

Adams (1881, 492) makes the connection between the Ordnance Survey site and the Meakstown property of Sir James Ware (1594–1666), noted scholar, antiquarian and Auditor-General of Ireland. The Civil Survey (1654–6) describes Ware's Meakstown holdings in some detail: 'There is upon ye premises a dwelling house of Brick with other office houses therto belonging-as a barne & a stable. Also an orchard and Garden Plott Valu'd by ye Jury at 300 li.' Together with 140 acres of land, the Meakstown house constituted the most valuable of Ware's Dublin properties, granted to him in 1638. Unfortunately the Down Survey does not depict Meakstown townland, and thus it is not possible precisely to identify the site of what must have been a substantial brick house.

The earlier programme of archaeological testing did not produce conclusive evidence for this house. However, the immediate area of the farm buildings, the area of greatest archaeological potential, was not part of the proposed development at that time and thus was not included in the testing programme.

Three trenches were opened mechanically, in open areas of the farm, as the buildings were still in use for wintering cattle. Two trenches were placed within the concreted yard, the third in the field immediately to the south of the main barn. Within the northern portion of farmyard a number of drains were identified, as well as spreads of red brick rubble and the disturbed remains of a slight brick wall. The southern portion of the farmyard was built on a depth of made ground, composed of a mixture of clays, gravels, stones, mortar and red brick. To the south of the farmyard, the third trench also identified a considerable depth of made ground, up to 2m thick, overlying a buried sod layer. Beneath this old sod layer a number of features were noted. The foundations of three mortared walls were identified running roughly north-south across the line of the trench, as well as a probable silted-up agricultural drainage ditch. Extending for 10m to the west of the ditch, a compacted mantling of small stones overlain by a layer of red brick and mortar rubble suggests an attempt to provide a stable surface, possibly for a laneway or yard. None of the available cartographic sources indicates either a track or a building in this location.

The testing programme did not conclusively identify the site as the location of the destroyed castle noted in the Name Books and depicted on the 1st edition 6-inch map of 1838. However, the presence of significant quantities of brick and rubble, as well as a number of wall foundations and rough surfaces, suggests considerable activity on the site before its present use as a farmyard. As virtually all the farm buildings shown on the 1838 map are still extant, and none is built predominantly of brick, it must be concluded that these remains relate to an earlier phase of building. As there are no such structures depicted on Rocque's map for 1758, it is possible that the remains are of buildings either already destroyed before this date or, alternatively, constructed and subsequently destroyed between 1758 and 1838.

There is considerable historical evidence for a substantial house and outbuildings belonging to Sir James Ware existing in this immediate area from 1638, and probably constructed somewhat earlier, and thus there is a strong possibility that the remains noted relate to this period. The identification on the OS map of this location as the site of a castle would, according to this interpretation, be seen to refer to the site of a house of the early 17th century.

Reference
Adams, B.W. 1881 Antiquarian notes on the parishes of Santry and Clogher. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 15.

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