2004:1120 - OLDBRIDGE DEMESNE, Louth

Test excavation was required in advance of plans by the OPW to construct a visitor carpark with access route from the main driveway and a separate exit route. In addition, a percolation area for wastewater from facilities to be established at Oldbridge House was tested for archaeological deposits.

Oldbridge Demesne is the site of the Jacobite encampment at the Battle of the Boyne and, in addition, is the site of at least one engagement—probably the deciding engagement—of the battle. The demesne has many archaeological monuments of differing periods and, as in the passage tomb complex further upriver, appears to have had a long and probably unbroken sequence of occupation. More recent intervention has occurred towards the River Boyne, where a navigation canal was constructed on the south side of the river in the late 18th century.

The site of the village of Oldbridge, one of the granges of Mellifont, has been provisionally identified close to the area of the farmhouse complex. Several probable house sites have been identified in an area to the south of the farmyard. However, the trackway is modern, appearing first on the OS map of 1907. In addition, a further group of geophysical anomalies was detected close to the trackway, so two cuttings were opened in this area. Limited hand excavation was undertaken to determine the relationship of the features uncovered to the trackway.

A series of machine-excavated trenches was opened using a medium-sized digger fitted with a grading bucket. All trenches were 1m wide, extending in a northwards direction towards the canal and sloping downwards with the contour in the area of the proposed carpark and percolation area. Material of recent date was recovered from all of these trenches and the topsoil was shallow.

Cutting 1 measured 12m (north-south) by 3.6m. The modern cobbled trackway was located under the sod, extending east-west. A shallow linear cut was identified on the south side of the road. It extended parallel with the road and was cut into subsoil. It contained post-medieval pottery sherds and some animal bone.

A possible drainage ditch extended east-west, 3m south of the trackway. It was filled with a light-brown crumbly topsoil, which contained a large amount of well-packed large stones (on average 0.2m by 0.15m by 0.15m), red brick, two pieces of struck chert and butchered animal bone. However, no pottery of recent date was recovered from this trench.

Cutting 2 measured 9m (north-south) by 3.9m. An exploratory trench 1m wide (east-west) by 3.9m was cut along the western edge of the cutting on the south side of the modern trackway. A layer of light-brown sandy clay (which contained a lot of stone) 0.35m thick overlay subsoil. A mixed assemblage of early post-medieval pottery and medieval green-glazed pottery and one fragment of Leinster cooking ware were recovered from this test area. This is the first excavated area on the site to have returned medieval pottery.

Test excavation confirmed the presence of the later 19th-century trackway, which extends from the proposed carpark, past the farmyard, to an exit gate. It is proposed to reuse this existing track. No in situ medieval layers or features were uncovered in the limited excavated area of Cutting 2, but the finds indicate that medieval features may be close by, in the area of the farm buildings.

27 Coulson Avenue, Rathgar, Dublin 6