County: Dublin Site name: OLDTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU011-144003- Licence number: 03E1080 ext.
Author: Christine Baker, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Field system
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 716518m, N 748229m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.471196, -6.244921
The site, previously unidentified, had been discovered during stripping of the original access road layout, when skeletal remains were recovered (No. 654, Excavations 2003). Following discussions with the National Monuments Section, a new location for the access road was suggested 42m north of the main complex of concentric enclosures. In order to establish the veracity of the geophysics results, both within and south of the road corridor, four test-trenches were positioned in order to gain the maximum information regarding these anomalies, their origin and relationship. The current ground level within the area tested ranges from 28.234 to 26.046m OD in the north. A total of 30 features of archaeological derivation and a number of drains were identified, and 40% of these features were investigated. These were substantial ditch features varying in depth from 0.42 to 0.9m.
These features appear to constitute a field system associated with the ecclesiastic complex, as illustrated by the geophysical survey. This correlates with the contemporary historical evidence. Adomnán describes Columba being greeted at Clonmacnoise by those working in the agellulis monasterio vicinis, ‘small fields near the monasteriu’, outside its vallum or ‘rampart’ (Etchingham 1999, 413).
Reference
Etchingham, C. 1999 Church organisation in Ireland AD 650 to 1000. Maynooth.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
