2000:0319 - LAUGHANSTOWN (Site 31), Dublin

This site is located to the immediate north of No. 317, Excavations 2000. Five test-trenches were excavated to determine the date of a stone structure (labourer’s cottage) demolished in the 1960s and to ensure that no earlier remains underlay the present foundations. The location of the stone structure, to the south of SMR 26:93, a recently identified tower-house (Swan 1998, 163–8), suggested that the cottage may be related to the general farm outbuildings that surround the tower-house.

The trenches were laid out to cut across what appeared to be the external walls and to investigate any foundations on the site. Initial clearing back of the overgrowth and brambles revealed that what had appeared to be the external walls of the structure were in fact the boundary walls surrounding a much smaller structure with outhouses and paving.

There was little evidence for the actual stonework or red brick that would have made up the fabric of the building, and it can only be concluded that this may have been robbed out and removed from the site. Likewise, there was scant evidence for the foundations of the stone structure. Apart from some stone paving to the rear of the demolished building and a stone door-jamb and steps that would have led into a small shed to the side of the building, no structural remains were found, possibly having been dug out by JCB at the time of demolition. The stone paving, door-jamb and steps all appear to date from the post-medieval period.

A small quantity of medieval pottery was found at the eastern end of the site, that nearest to the tower-house, and this suggests medieval activity in the general area of the site and associated with the tower-house known as Lehaunstown House.

Reference
Swan, D.L. 1998 Lehaunstown Park, Co. Dublin: a forgotten tower-house. In C. Manning (ed.), Dublin and beyond the Pale, 163–8. Bray.