County: Dublin Site name: THOMONDTOWN (1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0953
Author: Patricia Lynch, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 719173m, N 752354m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.507657, -6.203381
Archaeological investigations were carried out at Thomondtown (1), Co. Dublin, prior to the construction of the Northern Motorway/Airport– Balbriggan bypass. The site, initially identified in the EIS as Site 9 (Keeley 1994), was described as a large earthen mound, circular in form, which appeared to be surrounded by a fosse. It had been observed during a field inspection of the line of the road. This assessment report and later borehole monitoring by Hilary Opie recommended that archaeological investigations should be carried out to ascertain the nature and extent of the potential site (Keeley 1998). It was recorded that quarrying took place in the area. The site is to be directly affected by the motorway construction.
The site was located in two fields (Fields 1 and 2) separated by a road. When originally inspected the field was in pasture, but at the time of the investigation the field that contained Trenches 5 and 6 was under a potato crop, and as a result it was difficult to identify which of the undulations in the field marked the flattened bank and ditch identified during the EIS. The trenches in the first field were located on the top, across the fosse, and in the second field within the fosse of the possible feature. Six trenches, 8m x 2m, were opened. Trenches 1 and 2 were located on the top of the mound; Trench 3 was located across a shallow section of the fosse; Trench 4 was located across a deep section of the fosse; and Trenches 5 and 6 were located across a very shallow section of the fosse in a neighbouring field. It was known that the field within which Trenches 1–4 were located had not been ploughed for c. 100 years and that the field in which Trenches 5 and 6 were located had been ploughed for the first time in living memory in 1999.
No features of archaeological significance were identified during the testing.
References
Keeley, V.J. 1994 Archaeological report on the line of the proposed Northern Route Phase 2. Unpublished.
Keeley, V.J. 1998 Archaeological bore hole monitoring: Northern Motorway Airport to Balbriggan By-Pass, Co. Fingal. Unpublished.
112 Cianlea, Swords and Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny
