2002:0888 - CELBRIDGE: St Wolstan’s, Kildare

An assessment was carried out at St Wolstan’s House, Celbridge, Co. Kildare. The development site is immediately to the south of St Wolstan’s House and comprises c. 1ha. In 1202 a priory/abbey was founded nearby by Adam de Hereford, a Norman knight, who dedicated it to St Wolstan (SMR 11:14). The priory was dissolved in 1536 by Henry VIII and fell into the hands of the Alen family. This family built the present house during the 17th century and resided in the estate for over 200 years, until it was taken over by Bishop Clayton of Clogher. Various other residents lived on the property until 1955, when the Sisters of the Holy Faith purchased it for use as a secondary school. All that survives of the original priory buildings is the remains of a tower and gate to the north-west of the house. The house is listed as a protected structure under the Kildare Development Plan 1999.

The assessment took place in April 2002. Three trenches were opened across the site. None provided any clear indication of the presence of archaeological material. A short section of red-brick wall and a layer of mortar and stone rubble were noted in Trenches 1 and 2, which may relate to earlier buildings, possibly outbuildings for St Wolstan’s House. However, the surviving cartographic and historical sources do not give much information about any ancillary buildings at the site before the establishment of the Holy Faith school in the 1950s.

A compact grey silt layer noted in Trench 2 appeared to be consistent with a water feature such as a pond or a marshy or boggy area. This may be the result of landscaping activity to create the present garden, or it may be a relict garden feature. Certainly, the depth of the various topsoil layers above the natural geological strata suggests that the area had been landscaped in the past.