2001:601 - ATHY: Shaws, Duke Street, Kildare

Planning permission is being sought for the redevelopment of a town centre block in Duke Street, Athy. Test excavation of the limited open areas of the site was undertaken on 20 June 2001.

The main Duke Street frontage is at present occupied by buildings, one of which will be retained in the new development. The site lies within the medieval walled town of Athy, which was fortified by the late 13th century. The Barrow crossing was a strategic location from earlier times, and Neolithic and Bronze Age objects have been recovered from dredging the river.

While the town of Athy was of strategic importance throughout the medieval period, test excavation within the walled town has not revealed significant archaeological deposits. The exception occurred in two sites near St John’s and the river, close to the development site, where peat deposits along the riverbank were present. The river in the medieval period would have been considerably wider than now. The medieval mills would have been on the site of the 18th-century mills, well to the east of the site. The absence of medieval deposits noted in other test excavations in the town has been attributed to 18th/19th-century construction/ scarping, which may well have removed slight remains of the medieval period at the street frontage.
Two trenches were opened using a JCB fitted with a grading bucket. All trenches measured 1.6m in width. Towards the west of the site, shallow deposits of red brick rubble directly overlay the gravel subsoil. There was no indication here of the survival of any in situ deposits from the 17th century or earlier.

The limited test-trenching has indicated the survival of deposits of probable natural origin along the eastern side of the site. These occur along the original shore of the River Barrow. The deposits contain few artefacts, which date from the 13th to the 17th centuries. No deposits of archaeological interest remained in the area outside the original river shore. Further test-trenching is required over the remainder of the site, when the buildings are demolished.

25A Eaton Square, Terenure, Dublin 6W