County: Kildare Site name: LADYCASTLE LOWER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KD014-017001- Licence number: 03E0043
Author: Donal Fallon, CRDS Ltd.
Site type: Kiln - lime
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 691976m, N 729192m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.305020, -6.620000
The remains of a limekiln were exposed during monitoring of groundworks associated with the development of an access road and clubhouse on the south course of the K Club (No. 942, Excavations 2003).
The kiln consisted of a central firing bowl c. 3m in width and 0.6m deep. Two flues extended to the north-west and south-east (c. 0.8m wide and 0.35m deep). The firing bowl and the mouths of the flues were lined with a clay-bonded stone packing, consisting of coarse undressed limestone cobbles and small stones (average dimensions c. 0.3m by 0.15m by 0.1m). A small number of the stones had been roughly dressed. The upper extent of the firing bowl and the flues had been truncated by later disturbance, but the flues appear to have originally been covered over by capstones. The flue extending to the north-west was considerably broader, suggestive of a rake-out pit, but its full extent had been truncated.
The fills of the firing bowl consisted of successive layers of charcoal, burnt clay and fractured limestone from the last firing of the kiln. No evidence for an associated slaking pit was exposed, though the vicinity of the kiln had been heavily disturbed by a previous phase of works.
The only finds recovered consisted of two abraded fragments of medieval pottery from the clay bonding of the kiln. Only one fragment could be loosely identified, as Dublin ware of 13th–14th-century date.
The site is c. 140m south-east of an Anglo-Norman motte, in the townland of Ladycastle Lower. There are a number of references to Ladycastle as a manorial entity throughout the later medieval period and the motte may have originally functioned as a manorial centre. Excavations carried out adjacent to the motte exposed structural remains of medieval date, including fragments of crested ridge tile, medieval roofing slate and spreads of mortar (No. 943, Excavations 2003, 02E1782). The limekiln appears to be of medieval date and is presumably related to construction associated with occupation in the vicinity of the motte castle. Limekilns were often situated at a distance from habitation, due to the noxious gases produced during the firing process.
Unit 4, Dundrum Business Park, Dundrum, Dublin 14
