County: Kildare Site name: CLONCURRY
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0348
Author: Edmond O’Donovan, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 680310m, N 741259m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.415345, -6.791917
Test excavation was carried out to establish the location, nature and extent of potential archaeological features at an existing dwelling house at Cloncurry, Enfield, Co. Kildare. The excavation was carried out immediately adjacent to the medieval church and graveyard of Cloncurry. The proposed application area was occupied by a thatched house, which was occupied up to 1979. Since then the building has fallen into significant disrepair and now is completely ruinous. The house had a clay floor and the roof timbers and thatch have rotted and collapsed. The clay-bonded stone house walls have partially fallen in, but the outline of the building is still evident. Dense shrubs have colonised the building and it is significantly overgrown.
The Cloncurry church and graveyard complex SMR 4:21(01–09) is part of the ancient historic town of Cloncurry, located in an extensive area within the townlands of Cloncurry, Ballyvoneen, Ballynakill (Cloncurry e.d.) and Kilbrook. The footprint of the proposed dwelling house is located within the constraint area of the recorded monument.
Eight trenches were excavated on a proposed house site. They varied in length between 35m and 8.2m. No human burial remains were identified within the site, but a ‘ditch type’ feature and a small number of other faint archaeological features were identified in trenches. Three distinct areas within the proposed development site were identified: the vernacular house, a small field to the east of the house and a larger field to the north of the house. Three trenches were excavated in the small field to the east of the house; no archaeological deposits were encountered in this area. Four trenches were excavated in the larger field adjacent to the graveyard to the north of the vernacular house. Occasional shallow features were revealed over the boulder clay in this portion of the site, in addition to two sherds of medieval pottery and two fragments of red terracotta roof tiles with small specs of glaze. A final trench was excavated adjacent to and on the western side of the vernacular house.
