2002:0864 - BALLYMADEER: Backweston State Agriculture Laboratory Campus, Kildare

Monitoring was undertaken from April 2002 before development of the Backweston State Agricultural Laboratory Campus. The development site is on the Kildare–Dublin border, east of Celbridge and south of Leixlip. It encompasses most of the townland of Ballymadeer and comprises c. 36.76ha. The site is quite flat, and most or all of the land was boggy and undrained (and possibly partially wooded) until the post-medieval era (probably the mid-/late 18th century or early 19th century). At this time much of the surrounding land was being, or had been, reorganised into various, lesser-gentry estates like St Wolstan’s House (SMR 11:28) and Stacumny House (SMR 11:21). The development site was not included in the lands of St Wolstan’s House at the time of the Civil Survey in the mid-17th century, but it lay immediately adjacent to (east of) that estate. Although it is unclear whether all or part of the development site was held by either of these two estates by the mid-/late 18th century, evidence of the systematic drainage and ‘improvement’ of the development site suggests organised estate management, undertaken according to ideas about agricultural improvement that were widespread at that time. Fields in the development site were farmed (and cropped) fairly intensively during subsequent centuries. A consequence of ploughing and associated practices has been the damaging of earlier archaeological evidence of land use or settlement.

Before its post-medieval drainage, around one-third of the development site appears to have been used as common (boggy) land, with associated communal rights of pasture and turbary. Another one-third of the site was probably held by St Wolstan’s Priory (SMR 11:14) and passed into the possession of Sir John Alen, at St Wolstan’s House, at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries. The remaining one-third of the site, including the archaeological deposits described in this report, formed part of the townland of ‘Stacomny’, at least up until the mid-17th century. These latter two-thirds of the site are similar to that part that was once common land and are likely to have served similar purposes for, respectively, the lordly holdings of St Wolstan’s Priory and the medieval church foundation at the present site of Stacumny House (see report by Una Cosgrave in Excavations 1997, No. 265, 97E0119). This pattern of land use probably dates from at least the medieval period and may extend back to the Early Christian period. Evidence of prehistoric activity on the development site (in the form of ploughzone artefacts) was extremely sparse but may indicate that parts of the site were not always as wet during that era, despite the lack of drainage. It is possible therefore that the site served as rough pasture for much of its earlier history. Field observations indicated intensive recent (modern and possibly later post-medieval) agricultural activity across most of the site.

Sterile glacial-drift soils (‘boulder clay’) were encountered at depths of 0.2–0.4m below the pre-development ground level during monitoring. Across much of the site a decayed limestone bedrock was present only 0.5–0.7m beneath the pre-development ground level. Field drains and culverts were not mapped, as they mostly conformed to typical late post-medieval (post-agricultural improvement) morphologies. Two field drains that were not immediately identifiable as late post-medieval or modern proved, from finds in their base (creamware from one, and creamware and a wire iron nail from the other), to be of late 18th-/19th-century date.

Topsoil finds across the site indicate activity from the late 18th century onward, evidence that is consistent with the landscape history of the site. They include black-glazed red earthenwares; (late) clay-pipe fragments; creamwares (blue and green shell-edged, transfer-printed willow pattern etc.); wire nails; and homogeneous, high-fired brick fragments. Other typical (earlier) post-medieval finds were noticeably absent. A few artefacts from earlier eras were found in one of the fields in the east-central part of the development site (near NGR 300250 233250), but no archaeological features were unearthed there. Likely prehistoric finds include two fragments of struck, light grey flint (one debitage and the other a possible broken blade that has been burnt). A mid-blue (indigo), apple-shaped glass bead (7mm by 9mm by 9mm) may be of prehistoric, Early Christian or medieval date. Any archaeological features that these stray topsoil finds may once have related to appear to have been destroyed by late post-medieval/modern agriculture.

No deposits of archaeological significance were unearthed anywhere on the site, with the exception of an isolated, truncated, subrectangular pit with evidence of in situ burning (NGR 299990.472 233235.691, c. 61m OD). Topsoil removal across the development site has not been completed and will continue in 2003.

The pit was in a field to the south-west of the development and was excavated under a separate licence (02E0680). It lay at the north-east edge of a very gradual natural rise that sloped up to the south-west, in otherwise flat and low-lying ground, covered by c. 0.25m of topsoil. The field, while showing no evidence of peat formation, had clearly been wet and boggy for much of its past. It had been heavily ploughed in later post-medieval and modern times, with significant damage to earlier archaeology a likely consequence. The land has been drained only in the last 250 years or so, probably in the latter half of the 18th century.

The pit was cut into the natural boulder clay and had been significantly truncated on top, presumably by late post-medieval/modern ploughing. It exhibited clear indications of in situ burning, containing two charcoal-rich fills, with the natural boulder clay surrounding the edge of the cut burnt to a light to mid-red/brown. The feature measured 2.03m north-east/south-west by 0.94m. It achieved a maximum depth of c. 0.22m. The cut had a flat base, with straight sides and sharp upper and basal breaks of slope. The upper fill was a mid-grey/brown silty clay with frequent charcoal flecks, occasional burnt mid-red/brown patches and small, irregularly shaped stones, and a single medium-sized stone. It was 0.14m deep. The lower 0.08m of fill was black, of which 90% was composed of charcoal (flecks and small fragments), with 10% comprising a soil identical to the upper fill of the feature. The lower fill was visible around some of the edges of the feature, indicating truncation. No small finds were recovered from these deposits.

An area measuring 10–12m across, with the feature at its centre, was cleaned by hand, but no further archaeological deposits were found. No evidence of a fulacht fiadh mound was anywhere apparent. It may be that other, shallower features once surrounded the pit but no longer survive owing to agricultural practice in succeeding centuries.

The fills in the pit are likely to be the remains of fuel burnt in the cut and a mixture of ash and backfill. A certain amount of soil migration during post-depositional processes has resulted in some identical soil elements in both fills. Because of its isolation, it is difficult to interpret the burnt pit itself, and it is not even clear how many episodes of use the pit represents (probably not many). The time frame for the pit is also unclear, although it is unlikely to date from periods during which the field was probably boggy (medieval, possibly Early Christian) or after the time it was drained, improved and used more intensively for agriculture (post-medieval, modern).

Small finds recovered from the topsoil in the vicinity of the feature (NGR 30000.7519 23323.5307), c. 15m distant, included two fragments of a sheet-bronze pierced disc artefact, c. 60mm in diameter, with a central hole, 10mm in diameter. A concentration of late 18th-/19th-century potsherds (black-glazed earthenwares, transfer-printed willow pattern wares) found near the bronze artefact prompts speculation that the spot may have once lain beneath a plough headland where artefacts tended to collect in the topsoil.

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