County: Kildare Site name: COLLAGHKNOCK GLEBE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KD022-037 Licence number: 04E0771
Author: Teresa Bolger, c/o Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 674087m, N 712907m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.161496, -6.892115
An assessment was carried out at Collaghknock Glebe, Co. Kildare, in advance of a proposed residential development within agricultural lands situated c. 1.2km to the north-east of Kildare town. A possible prehistoric burial site is recorded within the proposed development area. It is not precisely located but the RMP constraint map places it in the north-west corner of the site, though descriptions of the findspot indicate that the burial was cut into the sands of an esker. The monument lies c. 250m to the south-east of the Curragh archaeological complex, SMR 22:71, and is described as an unprotected extended inhumation discovered in a pit in sand, with the head to the south-west.
Initially a geophysical survey of the site was carried out (04R0047) and a number of possible archaeological responses/anomalies were indicated by this. However, there were no clear archaeological patterns in the data and a natural origin could not be dismissed.
A test excavation was undertaken. Eight trenches were excavated, positioned so as to assess the nature of the anomalies identified by the geophysical survey and also so as to generally assess the potential for the survival of archaeological deposits or features at the site. The excavation indicated that the anomalies were mainly the result of the nature of the underlying geology, though indications of agricultural activity and cultivation were also noted. No features or deposits of archaeological origin were encountered.
27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
