2000:1069 - TAGHMON, Wexford

Further test-trenching was carried out at this site on 4 October 2000. Testing was in response to a request for further information from the planning authority following an application to build two ground-floor apartments and two duplex townhouses on the site. A large development site (3 acres) to the immediate south and abutting the proposed development site is currently in the process of completion (Castle Court). A considerable quantity of archaeological material dating to both the late prehistoric/Early Christian period and the Anglo-Norman period was found during groundworks at this development (Excavations 1998, 217–18; Excavations 1999, 304–5).

The site is roughly trapezoidal in shape, with the narrow end opening onto the street. The street frontage was formerly occupied by an old stone structure, which had been used as a blacksmith’s forge and was probably of 19th-century date. The tower-house stands a short distance to the south-east. The site is bordered to the west by a garden plot, the ground level of which was 0.5–1m higher than the level of the proposed development site, further corroborating the general impression that the levels in the immediate vicinity of the proposed development site had been considerably reduced.

Three test-trenches were inserted, concentrated in the area of greatest impact from the proposed development. These trenches confirmed the previously noted observation that surface levels in the general vicinity of the proposed development had been significantly reduced.

Archaeological material was identified in Test-trench 1, which was aligned along the proposed line of the front boundary wall. An archaeological fill in the form of a silty, organic deposit represented a lower fill of a cut feature, of which only the southern edge was identified. This may represent a linear feature of substantial width. The southern edge of this feature could be seen to turn northwards at the eastern end of Trench 1, but there is some evidence that it followed a straight course for some distance west of this turn. The upper levels of this feature were partly disturbed by the foundations of the recently demolished old stone structure, which cut through its southern edge.

It is difficult to interpret this archaeological feature. The fact that it is cut into the old ground surface would suggest that it represents a ditch or large pit. A defensive ditch would be well within context in a medieval settlement such as Taghmon, while early Anglo-Norman defensive structures would also have been associated with ditches. Several large ditch features dating to the medieval period were identified during recent archaeological work in the adjacent Castle Court development, and it is possible that a large network of defensive features was once a feature of the medieval settlement. No dating evidence was obtained from this ditch. A pre-Anglo-Norman origin for this feature is also a possibility, considering the monastic origin for the village of Taghmon.

31 Millford, Athgarvan, Co. Kildare