2000:0331 - NEWCASTLE NORTH/NEWCASTLE SOUTH, Dublin

A series of engineering test-pits was dug by mechanical excavator across areas of pastoral and arable land adjacent to the village of Newcastle Lyons in May and June 2000. All test-pits within the area of archaeological interest for Newcastle Lyons were monitored.

The medieval manorial village of Newcastle Lyons has been the focus of extensive academic study, and a detailed archaeological and historical assessment was carried out by Arch-Tech Ltd in January 2000. This report highlighted the presence of exceptionally well-preserved remains of medieval open-field agriculture, the possible line of an ecclesiastical enclosure and the sites of a number of post-medieval buildings, in addition to the numerous standing monuments within and around the village. Advance discussion with the consultant engineers ensured that engineering test-pits avoided any known or suspected sites, structures or areas of high archaeological potential.

Engineering test-pits were monitored in two phases. The excavation of nineteen test-pits in the townland of Newcastle South was monitored in May 2000. They were c. 2.5m x 0.75m and 2–3m deep. Finds recovered from the topsoil included modern and post-medieval pottery, iron horseshoes, clay pipe fragments and animal bone. Two sherds of thin, green-glazed, later medieval pottery were recovered from Test-pit 1, to the east of a small tower-house (RMP 20:00307). No archaeological features or deposits were identified in the course of monitoring. A stone-filled land drain was identified in Test-pit 14.

A second phase of engineering test-pits was monitored in June 2000, in Newcastle North townland under an extension to the same licence. These test-pits were opened in the field opposite St Finian’s church, immediately to the east of St Finian’s Community Hall. An area at the south-east of this field has been identified as the possible site of a tower-house (RMP 21:01702). A total of eleven test-pits were monitored, c. 3m x 0.75m and 1–3.2m deep. A single sherd of thick, green-glazed, medieval pottery with dark grey fabric and a red surface was recovered from Test-pit A. A range of modern and post-medieval pottery, clay pipe fragments and butchered animal bone was recovered from topsoil in the three test-pits closest to the street front (Test-pits A, B and C). No finds were noted in the other eight test-pits. No archaeological features or deposits were identified, but one side of an infilled ditch in Test-pit D appeared to correspond with a modern field drain.

32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2