County: Kildare Site name: MONASTEREVIN WATER SCHEME, Monasterevin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0158
Author: Clare Mullins
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Iron Age (800 BC-AD 339)
ITM: E 662867m, N 710361m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.140065, -7.060377
Monitoring of pipe-laying associated with the Monasterevin Water Supply Scheme was carried out from January to June 2000. A number of features of archaeological interest were encountered during trench excavations.
Over a distance of approximately 25m along the Kildare Road, just east of Dublin Street and north of the grounds of Moore Abbey, a series of eight ditch features was identified; each ditch was filled with the same turf-like humic material. They had been truncated by the pipe-trench and were all aligned north–south. The most western of these survived to at least 0.5m deep; the upper levels had been truncated during road construction. Tree roots were also identified along this route, and it was speculated that the ditch features were associated with land reclamation. No dating evidence came from any of the features.
At a distance of 70m west of Clonegath Cottage junction, the remains of a drystone wall were uncovered directly beneath the road surface. It was not clear whether this feature represented a foundation course or upper courses.
A feature identified along the Martinstown– Dunny’s Cross section of the pipeline consisted of a bowl-shaped depression, 0.55m wide at the top and 0.25m deep, visible only in the southern face of the trench, and filled with charcoal and grey soil. The cut was defined by a red band probably representing a layer of oxidised earth. Charcoal from the features returned a radiocarbon date of AD 65 to 245 (2 sigma calibration).
A series of features was identified over a distance of approximately 100m, along the Rathangan Road, in the townland of Oldgrange. These consisted of a series of depressions in the natural, filled with charcoal and burnt soil. A concentration of these features was identified in a 5m-long area. A series of charcoal samples has been submitted for radiocarbon dating. It is possible that all of these features are associated with the same archaeological complex.
31 Millford, Athgarvan, Co. Kildare
