County: Dublin Site name: SOMERTON HOUSE, ASTAGOB
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E1108
Author: Franc Myles, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Unknown
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 706978m, N 736031m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.363644, -6.392688
After an unsuccessful third-party appeal to An Bord Pleanála, Monarch Properties were granted permission to develop a residential scheme and golf club house within the curtilage of Somerton House, a protected structure located over the Liffey at the Strawberry Beds, at Astagob, Castleknock. There are no known monuments on the site, but there was a condition on the grant of permission that all groundworks would be monitored.
Prior to applying for the licence, the site was inspected and it was found that a considerable amount of groundworks had already been undertaken. On a second inspection, it became clear that practically all the groundworks associated with the scheme had been completed without there being an archaeological presence on the site.
The response to the condition of the grant of permission for the monitoring of ‘all site investigations and other excavation works’ was inadequate in this instance. However, no archaeological features, soils or finds were noted during the two inspections carried out.
