2004:0805 - CASTLEDERMOT: Keenan's Lane, Kildare

Planning permission is sought for development of a site at Keenan's Lane, Castledermot, Co. Kildare. Test excavation of the open area to Main Street, presently in use as a surface carpark, was undertaken on 18 June 2004. Keenan's Lane is almost certainly of early origin, as it is situated between the medieval Market Square and the town walls.

Two trenches, limited by the presence of a thick subsurface concrete slab, were opened. Trench 1 measured 2m in width and was located towards Main Street. The soil profile was of tar macadam/hardcore to 0.4m below street level. A loose granite rubble deposit, containing large fragments of corroded metal, overlay a loose, very fine, brown loam that contained fragments of butchered animal bone and fragments of marine shell. Pieces of red brick and coal were noticeably absent. There were, however, ash lenses and charcoal fragments in the loam. A single sherd from the rim of an unglazed Leinster ware pot was recovered from the loam. The brown loam in Trench 1 evidently filled a cut or ditch, as subsoil (compact yellow/brown boulder clay) was encountered at 0.5m below present ground level at the east of the trench.

Trench 2 measured 1.8m in width. The soil profile was of tar macadam/compacted gravels with red brick to 0.5m below present ground level. At 0.5m below, a brown loam was encountered to the west of the trench. This was similar to that in Trench 1, with no coal or brick fragments present. The probable medieval soil was overlain by a compacted oxidised clay layer which appears to be the floor of a post-medieval building. A fragment of a clay tobacco pipe was recovered from the floor. Mechanical excavation was stopped at this level. Some hand excavation confirmed that the clay floors overlay the brown loam and appeared to dip to the east. It would seem that the post-medieval floors remained solely in an area where these layers had slumped into a pit or ditch.

The grant of planning permission on this site specifies total excavation of the archaeological deposits.

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