County: Kildare Site name: NICHOLASTOWN (Site AE24)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0136
Author: Shane Delaney, IAC Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 684076m, N 740828m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.410878, -6.735394
Site-specific testing was recommended of specific and anomalous features of archaeological potential along the route of the proposed M4 Kinnegad– Enfield–Kilcock Motorway Scheme (Contract 3) in the environmental impact statement. Testing was recommended at Nicholastown as the aerial photography in the environmental impact statement recorded the field as having cultivation ridges that appeared to adhere to linear features that may have been field boundaries.
Fourteen trenches were excavated across the site. The field was tested with a central linear trench with offsets approximately every 30m. In all trenches the topsoil and ploughsoil sealed the natural geology. Testing failed to reveal any archaeological remains or datable artefacts associated with the cultivation ridges. It is suggested that these relate to relatively recent farming practices.
8 Dungar Terrace, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin
