County: Dublin Site name: ASHTOWN CASTLE, PHOENIX PARK, DUBLIN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 18:7(02) Licence number: 05E0307
Author: Eoin Halpin and Stephen Doyle, Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview Dublin 3.
Site type: Walled gardens
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 711045m, N 736340m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.365586, -6.331492
During April 2005, 26 test-trenches were excavated within the two adjoining walled gardens that are adjacent to the Phoenix Park Visitors Centre and about 400m from Ashtown Castle. The purpose of this programme of testing was to ascertain the exact location and condition of the paths and ‘cold-frame’ and ‘vinery’ structures depicted within the walled gardens on the 19th-century OS maps. During the course of the 20th century, the 19th-century garden structures were largely levelled and the paths had become overgrown. The test-trenches were excavated to the upper surface of 19th-century features – on average 0.3m below existing ground level – with the result that any earlier archaeological material that may potentially exist beneath was not disturbed.
Testing confirmed, in the main, the path layout depicted on 19th-century maps. These paths were found to be uniformly composed of crushed stone and rounded pebbles, with subsoil-cut bedding cuts on either side filled with a dark-grey garden-soil. The trenches excavated across the footprint of the ‘cold-frame’ and ‘vinery’ garden structures confirmed the existence of low brick foundation walls.
