2001:661 - CARTON DEMESNE, Maynooth, Kildare

Carton Demesne is about one mile north-east of the village of Maynooth and was part of the extensive lands in north Kildare granted to Maurice Fitzgerald after the Anglo-Norman invasion. Detailed records dating from 1603 show that the manor of Carton was leased by the earl of Kildare to Sir William Talbot. It would appear that by 1690 an important house with extensive formal gardens was to be found at Carton. In 1739 the Rye Water Valley was acquired as it conformed to the contemporary notion of what constituted a ‘natural landscape’. In the newly incorporated parts of the demesne, routes of roads and paths were altered and field boundaries shown on the maps of 1744 and 1750 were removed in favour of unfenced parkland.

Testing of a site identified in the initial EIS for the Montgomerie golf-course (Phase II) led to the discovery of a fulacht fiadh, tested by Angela Wallace (Excavations 2000, No. 498, 00E0414). The fulacht fiadh was within the area of maximum disturbance and required excavation in advance of construction. The programme of test-trenching involved the mechanical excavation of 39 test-trenches along the length of the fairway for each of the nine holes (Phase II) of the proposed golf-course. The length of the test-trenches, which ranged from 20m to 250m, was appropriate to the area of maximum disturbance associated with the design of each fairway.

The excavation of the trenches resulted in the discovery of an isolated pit (see Excavations 2001, No. 665), a kiln (see Excavations 2001, No. 664), a small isolated spread of burnt stone (see Excavations 2001, No. 663) and a fulacht fiadh (see Excavations 2001, No. 666). All of these features were excavated in advance of construction.

39 Trees Road, Mount Merrion