County: Kildare Site name: BALLYVONEEN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: KD004-021001 Licence number: 05E0957
Author: Martin E. Byrne, Byrne Mullins & Associates
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 670043m, N 716779m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.196840, -6.951730
Testing took place at the site of a proposed house. The site is located within the zone of archaeological potential around the suspected area of the former medieval borough of Cloncurry. The exact site of the borough is unknown, but there are two likely locations. The first lies in the vicinity of the church and motte to the immediate north of the village. In addition to these structures, there is a large regular cropmark visible in aerial photographs as being situated in the field immediately west of the motte, although there are no surface traces for this feature. The second location is in the third field south of the crossroads, on the eastern side of the Newtown road, in which a cross base survives. This is c. 150m to the south-east of the subject development plot. According to Bradley et al. (1989, i, 169) a map of 1752 indicates a settlement concentration in this area, aligned along a former roadway running from the north-west corner of the field towards the curving bulge on the field’s eastern boundary. From there it continued in an easterly direction along the townland boundary between Cloncurry and Ballynakill and Killbrook and Ballynakill. This former roadway survives on the ground as a low linear depression. In the first (western) field a second former roadway is visible running from the south-west corner of the field and it joins the first road towards the middle of the field. Both former roadways average 7–8m in width and are up to 1.5m lower than the ground on either side. The southern end of the western field closest to the cross base is marked ‘The Green’ on the 1752 map, which may indicate that it was the location of a market place.
Three trenches were excavated in the area of the proposed house. No features or artefacts of archaeological interest were uncovered during the course of the testing.
Reference
Bradley, J., Halpin, A. and King, H.A. 1989 Urban Archaeological Survey: Co. Kildare. Vol. I. Office of Public Works (unpublished report).
7 Cnoc na Gréine Square, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare
