County: Dublin Site name: FATHER COLLINS PARK, GRANGE ROAD, BALDOYLE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E1372
Author: Colm Moriarty, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 722965m, N 740244m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.398009, -6.150980
An assessment was carried out at Father Collins Park, Baldoyle, to establish the nature and extent of a number of anomalies identified in a geophysical survey (Licence 05R166). Seven test-trenches were mechanically excavated at the proposed development site. These revealed that most of the anomalies were related to 19th-century land division and drainage. However, at the very northern end of the park one area of archaeological potential was identified. Four shallow cuts were identified, two of which had evidence for in situ burning. It is possible that these features are the remains of crude kilns. A fragment of Westerwald pottery was recovered from one of the cuts, suggesting that this feature, at least, dates to the 17th or early 18th centuries. The remainder of the finds (slag, burnt stone, burnt brick) recovered from these features are suggestive of some form of industrial activity being carried out at this site. Though the full extent of the archaeological features could not be defined in the test-trenches excavated, the geophysical survey results suggest that subsurface activity stretches over an area measuring 45m north–south by 10m.
