County: Kildare Site name: LADYCASTLE LOWER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 14:17 Licence number: 02E1513
Author: Angela Wallace, on behalf of Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Castle - motte and bailey
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 690632m, N 728860m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.302273, -6.640249
An assessment was carried out before construction of a clubhouse associated with the newly developed south course of the K Club, Straffan Demesne. The proposed clubhouse is to be constructed near a motte. A 30m buffer zone from the base of the motte is to be left undisturbed. Testing was carried out immediately south of this buffer zone in order to establish whether archaeological material survives within the area where construction works are to be carried out.
The motte is immediately south of the River Liffey and lies in a band of woodland adjacent to the river. A new golf-course has been developed in the area to the west of the motte. During the development of the golf-course the site for the proposed clubhouse was used for mounding large quantities of soil. As a consequence, the area has been tracked over by machinery, which has led to compaction of the soil.
Four test-trenches were mechanically excavated. No archaeological features or finds were exposed in Trench 1. Two features of archaeological significance were exposed in Trench 2: F4, a roughly circular patch of dark soil, and F5, a small area with flat slate stones that appeared to have been laid down to form a surface; this feature was c. 0.3m below present ground level. Two large sherds of pottery with an external green glaze were recovered from the vicinity of F5. They are probably of 13th–14th-century date and appear to be fragments of a large vessel of local manufacture. A separate large pottery sherd that appears to be from the same vessel was recovered c. 12m east of F5. Three large, flat fragments of ceramic tiles with traces of a green glaze and an animal tooth were also recovered from this area.
One feature was exposed in Trench 3: F6, a cobbled surface of flat and rounded stones. Two sherds of modern pottery were recovered at the southern end of this trench. Two features were exposed in Trench 4, F7 and F8; both features were remnants of separate metalled surfaces. Two sherds of modern pottery and three small fragments of animal bone were recovered from this trench. It is probable that F6–8 are post-medieval and are associated with the now demolished farm buildings depicted on the OS maps.
The discovery of several sherds of medieval pottery in association with a cobbled surface in Trench 2 indicates that the area of medieval occupation extends up to 40m from the base of the motte.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
