2001:1376 - NEWCASTLE MIDDLE, Wicklow

Archaeological features were revealed in the townland of Newcastle Middle during the stripping of topsoil for the Hollybrook–Wicklow Bord Gáis Éireann pipeline in June 2001. The monitoring of topsoil-stripping and the subsequent excavation revealed a series of archaeological features stretching over approximately 120m of the pipeline route. The Newcastle Middle site was on level ground overlooking the village of Newcastle, which is 1km to the east, and the Irish Sea some 1.5–2km beyond that. The ground falls to north and east and rises to the hills in the west.

The main concentration of archaeological features, Area 1, comprised a series of pits and linear features in an area measuring 15m north–south by 12m. Some three deep pits were excavated within this area. These pits, which formed no obvious structural plan, were generally 0.5m wide with depths of 0.5–0.6m. The fills were all dark brown silts with occasional charcoal flecking. The upper fill of one of the pits contained abundant quantities of charcoal. Analysis of this revealed the presence of some ten species. Hazel and elm were dominant, but alder and ash were also common.

Three additional features were located in the north-west quadrant of Area 1. A subcircular hearth, which measured 0.8m north–south by 0.7m with a depth of 0.12m, was excavated. This feature exhibited evidence of in situ burning on its eastern side, where the natural subsoil into which it had been cut was burnt to a dark purple red colour. Its fill was a friable, dry black silt. Some 3m to the north-west of the hearth, excavation revealed an irregular, kidney-shaped pit, which measured 0.8m north-west/south-east by 0.68m with a depth of 0.12m. Its single fill was a dark brown to black sandy clay. Approximately 0.6m north-west of the latter feature, another pit was located. This was oval in plan, irregularly shaped in profile, with shallow breaks of slope and a flat base, and measured 0.4m north-west/south-east by 0.28m, with a depth of 0.06m. The single fill was a moderately compact brown to black sandy clay.

Two narrow ditches were revealed running across the southern half of Area 1, 2.5–1m apart. Although the relationship between them is unclear, their orientations suggest that they intersect to the east of the pipeline way-leave. The northernmost measured 12.9m east–west as exposed, with a width of 0.4–1.08m and a depth range of 0.09–0.47m. It contained some five silty charcoal-flecked fills. The southern ditch measured 9.14m east–west as exposed and 0.7–1.3m in width, with a depth range of 0.14–0.42m. It contained two fills, consisting of dark brown silty clays with frequent charcoal flecking. Three small driven post-holes and one stake-hole were all truncated by this linear ditch.

Several apparently isolated features were found in the pipeline corridor close to Area 1. Approximately 20m to the north of Area 1, a single kidney-shaped pit was revealed and excavated. Two isolated (driven) post-holes were also found and excavated some 57m south of Area 1. Approximately 77m south of Area 1 a cremation pit was excavated. This measured 0.6–0.62m in diameter, with a maximum depth of 0.2m, and contained three fills. The uppermost of these was composed of redeposited natural subsoil. Beneath the upper sealing layer was the main cremation fill, a dry, moderately compact black charcoal lens with frequent inclusions of small, fragmented pieces of cremated bone. The basal fill was more disturbed natural subsoil.

At a distance of 100m to the south of the main area of excavation, Area 1, a single post-hole was found in association with a shallow pit. The post-hole, which was irregular in plan, measured 0.83m by 0.62m, with a maximum depth of 0.22m. A fragment of badly worn, and otherwise unidentifiable, prehistoric pottery was retrieved from the fill of this feature. The second shallow pit, some 1.5m to the south-west, has tentatively been interpreted as a small hearth. Irregular in plan, it measured 1m by 0.6m, with a depth of 0.25m, and contained two fills. Flint-working debris was found within and around both features.

The features detected at Newcastle Middle were all confined to a 20m-wide corridor, and their wider association and integrity remains unclear. The material must indicate a considerable area of prehistoric archaeological importance in the immediate area.

2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin