2002:0895 - CLONGOWES WOOD COLLEGE, Castlebrown/Clongowes, Kildare

Monitoring of ground reduction associated with the construction of a new boiler room was undertaken in August 2002 at Clongowes Wood College, in the townland of Clongowes (Castlebrown), Clane, Co. Kildare. The monitoring was carried out in coordination with an architectural assessment by Jackie Jordan of standing building remains to be affected by the refurbishment. The ground reduction was in a courtyard immediately south of the main historical building: an 18th-century country house with extensive 19th-century refurbishments. Parts of the main building date from at least the 17th century, and probably from the late 15th century, when a junior branch of the Eustaces of Castlemartin settled at Mainham and built the castle at Clongowes, intending it as a link in the long chain of border strongholds guarding the English Pale (Burke-Savage 1981). Two sections of linear Pale earthworks survive on the grounds of Clongowes Wood College, both north (SMR 14:8(01)/10:21) and south (SMR 14:8(02)) of the main college complex.

Immediately beneath the concrete floor of the former laundry block, a variety of post-medieval (and possible medieval) deposits were unearthed, in an area measuring 8.75m north–south by 5.9m. These included a late post-medieval brick culvert, post-medieval capping on a possible well or cesspit, two mortared stone walls/wall footings (one probably late post-medieval, one possibly earlier) and a number of medieval/post-medieval deposits with organic content.

On the basis of these findings, recommendations for the mitigation of the impact of the development on this archaeology were made, and excavation by Ed O’Donovan followed (see No. 896, Excavations 2002).

Reference
Burke-Savage, R. 1981 Clongowes Wood College. Unpublished.

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