County: Kildare Site name: BISHOPSLAND
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0486
Author: Finola O’Carroll, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 672756m, N 713505m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.167061, -6.911889
Pre-development testing was carried out on 8 June 2001 in advance of the construction of a two-storey dwelling-house. The plot is bordered to the west by a linear earthwork (SMR 29:39), which is believed to be part of the medieval Pale Ditch. The existing earthwork is a ditch 7m wide formed by two tree-lined banks 1m high, separated by a shallow ditch 2.5m in width and 0.3m in depth. A modern scratching-post is located in the centre of the field.
Nine test-trenches were excavated by machine to subsoil. Four were within the house footprint, and a further five were excavated along the length of the proposed roadway.
The underlying stratigraphy was consistent across the site. The subsoil was overlain by a compact brown clay 0.1–0.2m in depth, with a sod layer 0.1m in depth forming the surface. No archaeological deposits or features were exposed, and the sterile nature of the soil suggested that it had never been tilled. The dwelling-site will not directly impact upon the earthwork described above, Excavations 2001.
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