County: Wicklow Site name: ‘THE COTTAGE’, Wentworth Place, Wicklow
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 25:12 Licence number: 00E0127
Author: James Eogan, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Building
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 731222m, N 694034m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.980977, -6.045863
This site is within the zone of archaeological potential of Wicklow town. It is proposed to construct a three-storey building for mixed commercial and residential use. A condition in the grant of planning permission required the developer to employ a licensed archaeologist to make an assessment of the proposed development.
The site is adjacent to excavations carried out by Cia McConway and the writer in 1997, on the site of Wentworth House (Excavations 1997, 201–2, 97E0118). These excavations uncovered the remains of medieval rubbish pits and boundary ditches. It is 100m north-east of the site of the medieval Franciscan friary. Cartographic sources indicate that ‘The Cottage’ was not built until the early part of the 20th century.
The line of one of the boundary ditches was projected through this site, and the testing strategy aimed to locate this feature, if it survived. Two test-trenches were excavated by a JCB using a 4-ft toothless bucket. The trenches were excavated to undisturbed natural soils. The presence of the concrete foundations of the previous structure was a constraint on the location of the trenches. The fill of two furrows (orientated east–west) in Test-trench 1 contained sherds of 18th/19th-century stoneware; they are similar to features identified in the excavation of the adjacent site.
The ditch was not found; if it did extend into this site it was removed by the construction of ‘The Cottage’. No significant archaeological remains were uncovered in the test excavation.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
