County: Dublin Site name: ISAAC'S BOWER, Balbriggan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0951
Author: Brian Shanahan, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Prehistoric site - lithic scatter and Structure
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 720300m, N 763589m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.608319, -6.182080
An assessment was required in advance of groundworks for the Balbriggan Interim Sewerage Scheme. The route runs along the coast for c. 600m and along an existing road towards the town for a further 455m. Evidence for prehistoric and post-medieval activity was uncovered along the coastal stretch, which is divided into a landscaped green in front of a line of houses and an adjacent undeveloped field. A range of struck flint was recovered from the topsoil, and a box drain and a field drain of post-medieval date were also encountered. Deposits of modern built ground, up to 3m deep, underlay the green area, in front of the existing houses. Elsewhere the topsoil was 0.3–0.5m thick.
An extensive ploughzone flint assemblage was recovered from the topsoil across the coastal stretch of the proposed development. It appears to be derived from Antrim flint that was deposited locally on the beach by glacial action during the last Ice Age. This included three possible blades and two Neolithic scrapers, in addition to ten flint cores which had been used to produce blades. They were not associated with any structural evidence or occupation debris and they may reflect transient localised flint-knapping rather than intensive occupation near the exposed cliff edge. A decorated boulder recovered from nearby Hampton Cove is all that remains of a Neolithic passage tomb destroyed by coastal erosion (Buckley 1992, 21). The presence of the Bremore passage tombs, which lie some kilometres to the north, reflects a wider Neolithic occupation along the coast.
The box drain was associated with a house built in the 1850s. It was set into a 1m-wide trench and consisted of two roughly coursed mortared walls with a flagstone base and a stone lintel roof (0.36m wide and 0.4m deep). It ran towards the cliff edge with a gradient of 1:10 and appeared to be still in use. The level green area in front of the houses was the result of extensive modern dumping, up to 3m deep.
The field drain, encountered in the centre of the undeveloped field, was set into a trench containing a single line of U-shaped terracotta tiles, covered by rough gravel fill. It ran in an east–west direction, following the orientation of the field boundaries. This drain type was common in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Reference
Buckley, V. 1992 Beach boys discover a rolling stone. Archaeology Ireland 6 (3), 21.
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