County: Kildare Site name: KILLICKAWEENY (Site AE25)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0137
Author: Shane Delaney, IAC Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 685063m, N 740603m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.408699, -6.720616
Site-specific testing of specific and anomalous features of archaeological potential along the route of the proposed M4 Kinnegad–Enfield–Kilcock Scheme (Contract 3) was recommended in the environmental impact statement. Testing was recommended at Site AE25, Killickaweeny, as the aerial photography in the environmental impact statement recorded a series of cultivation ridges and linear features. The linear features formed three sides of a possible octagon. It was suggested that these may have formed part of an enclosure. The cultivation ridges traversed these lines, suggesting that they were not contemporaneous.
Testing involved the excavation of a linear trench, c. 0.3–0.5m deep (depending on the depth of archaeological deposits or natural geology) and 1.82m wide, at the eastern side of Site AE25. Eight offset trenches were excavated at intervals of 50m within the land-take. There was provision to excavate additional trenches if required, in areas that revealed subsoil remains, in an attempt to define further their extent and condition.
Two sites were revealed. Site 17, at the western side of Site AE25, was a stone-capped pit comprising burnt material sealing a charcoal-rich spread. The spread contained occasional burnt bone. It measured 3.04m east–west by 1.6m and was 0.6m deep. No finds were recovered from the tested area. It was truncated by a modern field boundary/drain and is possibly a cremation pit.
Site 18 was at the south-east corner of the area. The easternmost north–south offset trench revealed a linear feature that contained medieval pottery. The feature was 4.4m long, north–south, and extended beyond the excavation area southward. It was 0.4m wide and 0.2m deep and contained a friable, mid-grey, sandy clay with frequent pebble inclusions.
Excavation was extended to the west and the east. An area to the east measuring 8.5m north–south by 6m was opened and revealed sherds of medieval pottery. These sherds appeared to be pressed into a layer of redeposited natural. Two pits containing burnt clay cut this redeposited material.
8 Dungar Terrace, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
