County: Wicklow Site name: CHARLESLAND
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RMP 13:22 and 13:23 Licence number: 01E1133
Author: Bernice Molloy, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 729198m, N 710156m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.126276, -6.069514
An assessment was carried out in Charlesland, Co. Wicklow, following a request for additional information from Wicklow County Council for a proposed residential/industrial development and link-road. The site is on a gentle east-facing slope with good views of the Sugarloaf and the Wicklow mountains to the west, and the Irish Sea to the east.
Two cropmark sites were located along the route of the proposed link-road. Two further sites (SMR 13:6 and 13:7) to the north were tested under a separate licence (see No. 1350, Excavations 2001, 01E1132). Neither site is visible on the ground surface, and both were identified by aerial photography in the 1980s (by J.K.S. St Joseph of Cambridge University).
Two test-trenches excavated across SMR 13:23 exposed a gravel pit that had been quarried and backfilled. Material found in the backfill suggested that the quarry was modern in date. Trenches 2–6 were opened to examine SMR 13:22. This cropmark appeared to be geologically derived and bore some resemblance to a pingo—an ice core mound.
Testing concluded that neither feature was archaeological in origin.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
