County: Kildare Site name: KILTEEL UPPER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 20:6, 20:7 Licence number: 02E1467
Author: Ines Hagen, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 698504m, N 721409m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.233925, -6.524490
An assessment was carried out at Kilteel Upper, Co. Kildare, on 30 September and 1 October 2002. The proposed development consists of a roadway to provide access to a field zoned for residential development. The proposed access road is within the area of the medieval settlement of Kilteel, a site listed in the Register of Historic Monuments.
The settlement is south-west of the village and includes standing monuments dating from the early to later medieval period. These remains consist of a church and graveyard, a cross, a complex of buildings comprising the preceptory of the Knights Hospitaller, and an extensive system of associated earthworks, including the Pale boundary and the preceptory enclosure. An aerial photograph and interpretative tracing of these remains (Manning 1981–2) indicate the proximity of the proposed development to these earthworks. Several artefacts dating to the prehistoric period were uncovered during excavations of the church (ibid.), indicating some human activity in the area during this time.
Three test-trenches were excavated, the topsoil being removed with the aid of a mechanical excavator. Two of these trenches were parallel to the field boundary in the north-east and along the line of the proposed access road. The third was at a right angle to the other trenches and was designed to intercept the remains of the possible preceptory enclosure, visible as low earthworks above present field level.
Trench 1 produced evidence of an 18th–19th-century linear landscape feature, which runs adjacent to and parallel to the main road. Remains of this can still be seen above ground level in the adjacent field to the south-west. Trench 2 did not reveal any archaeological features or artefacts.
Trench 3 was excavated to the top of the archaeological deposits and revealed the remains of an enclosing element, 13.5m in overall width. This comprised an external bank (7m wide), an intervening ditch (1.5m wide) and a low internal bank (5m wide). The intervening ditch lay 0.25m below present ground level. The banks were flat topped, composed of redeposited, yellow/brown, gravelly boulder clay, and lay immediately below a thin layer of topsoil (0.1–0.15m).
Reference
Manning, C. 1981–2 Excavations at Kilteel Church, Co. Kildare. Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society 16 (3), 173–229.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
