County: Wicklow Site name: BRAY: Corke Abbey
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1717
Author: Margaret Gowen, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Linear earthwork
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 726116m, N 719433m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.210348, -6.111884
One test-trench was opened in November 2002 on the grounds of Bray Golf Club, north of Bray town. The area under investigation is recorded in the SMR as part of the Pale boundary, SMR 26:124, although this identification is not supported by the historical evidence, which points to a possible association with Corke Abbey and to lands outside the Pale and held by the Crown that were leased in the 15th and 16th centuries to the Harrolde and Walshe families, the latter of which held extensive lands in south Dublin incorporating Carrickmines (L. Simpson, pers. comm.). The levelled boundary runs from the railway line north-eastward across part of the golf-course. The remains consist of a linear, flat-topped, tree-lined bank with shallow depressions on either side. The south-western end is the best-preserved section of this feature; the north-eastern end is barely detectable on the ground and is almost level.
A section of the proposed Shanganagh and Bray Main Drainage Scheme wayleave passes through the eastern limit of the Pale boundary, at its most poorly preserved point. The excavation focused particularly on assessing the impact of the creation of haul roads during the laying of a new sewer.
The test-trench was 14.2m long, 1m wide and 0.8–1m in maximum depth. The cross-sections exposed the levelled and reworked remains of the boundary bank but no evidence of well-defined ditch cuts on either side of the levelled bank. There is a possibility, therefore, that the remains of a ditch or ditches exist below the level excavated. All of the material exposed either was sterile or had modern inclusions as a consequence of golf-course development. A full topographical survey and terrain modelling of the levelled bank through the area of the proposed wayleave and for a distance of 20m beyond it were undertaken as mitigation. Trench excavation for pipe laying will be monitored during the construction phase, although it may not reach a level at which greater definition will be gained.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
