County: Waterford Site name: ABBEYSIDE, DUNGARVAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 31:40, 31:40(06) Licence number: 02E1727
Author: çine Richardson, Eachtra Archaeological Projects, Ballycurreen Industrial Estate, Kinsale Road, Cork.
Site type: Medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 626013m, N 593597m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.093676, -7.620363
Testing was carried out as part of an assessment at Abbeyside, Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, in December 2002. The site is located within the area of archaeological potential of the town of Dungarvan and the site of a tower-house is also contained within the development area. The site consisted of three fields currently in use as farmland though surrounded by the urban area of Abbeyside, except at the west, where the site overlooks the mouth of the River Colligan and Dungarvan Harbour. A medieval abbey is situated c. 50m east of the site.
Test excavations comprised evenly dispersed trenches across the site, excluding the location of the tower-house. Sixteen trenches with 23 offshoots were machine-excavated. The trenches were, on average, 1.7m in width and 1m in depth.
Field 1, west and north of the other two, was L-shaped. Six trenches were excavated in this field, two orientated north-south and the others perpendicular to these. Substantial medieval archaeological remains were uncovered in all of the east-west trenches bar one, and in the southern ends of the other two. These comprised a small hearth, medieval layer and ditches, nearly all of which contained sherds of medieval pottery. In the northernmost part of the field, post-medieval and early modern layers were uncovered that were probably associated with the gardens of cottages shown on the mid-19th-century Griffith Valuation map.
The second field was situated south of the other two. In all, six trenches were excavated and two of these had perpendicular offshoots. Excavation revealed that the majority of the eastern half of the field consisted of a backfilled quarry. Local people suggested that the backfilling took place during the1960s. Some archaeological remains were present in the western and southern parts of the field consisting of three ditches and some midden material, all potentially medieval in date.
The third field, east and north-east of the other two, contained the site of the tower-house along its eastern boundary. Four long trenches with seventeen offshoots were excavated in this field. The field contained substantial concentrated archaeological remains in its south-eastern corner consisting mainly of ditches, forming a possible enclosure. These remains are of unknown date but are both potentially medieval and potentially associated with the tower-house, the site of which is immediately north of the trenches. More ditches were uncovered in the centre of the field, which were probably related. The northwestern corner of the field contained no archaeological remains.
Editor's note: Though carried out in 2002, this summary was received too late for inclusion in the bulletin of that year.
