County: Kildare Site name: NEWTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0545
Author: Emer Dennehy, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Fulacht fiadh
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 682538m, N 738945m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.394206, -6.759024
Testing was undertaken as a component of an archaeological impact assessment. The proposed development site at Newtown, Maynooth, is composed of two large fields defined in the north and east by the townland boundary. The east side of the development is also defined by the Royal Canal and the Dublin–Maynooth railway line. Eight trenches were excavated, with archaeological stratigraphy in the form of burnt-mound material identified in Trench 1B. No additional archaeological stratigraphy was identified during the testing programme, but the excavation of trenches in Field 2 was hampered due to the former use of this area as an illegal landfill.
Monitoring of all ground-disturbance works at this site was also conducted under the same licence, at the same time as the excavation of the burnt-mound remains. An isolated roasting pit was exposed in the north-east corner of Field 1. No archaeological stratigraphy was identified in Field 2.
The burnt-mound material was composed of three distinct thin spreads of burnt sandstone in a charcoal-enriched matrix. Each spread averaged 7m in length by 3.5m and had an average depth of just 0.06m. An oval trough-like feature identified in the south-east quadrant of the site measured 2m east–west by 1.5m. This feature varied in depth from 0.56m in the east to 1.4m in the west, where half the feature was excavated to a depth beneath the water table, and appears to have functioned as a well. The well portion of this feature was initially lined with wood and subsequently with a layer of clay. It is probable that this feature may have been used as a sauna, whereby heated stones were placed in the shallow eastern half, and water to create steam was accessed from the ‘well’. Bones from a young lamb (<8 months) were retrieved from the ‘well’ (Melanie McQuade, pers. comm.).
A number of truncated features which may have served as post-holes for a windbreak in addition to a slot-trench were also excavated in the south-western quadrant of the site.
A large isolated roasting pit was also excavated in the north-east corner of Field 1. This pit was subcircular in plan and measured 1.26m east–west by 1.12m and varied from 0.04m to 0.2m in depth. The pit contained a single fill, which was a compact deposit of 40% burnt sandstone in a charcoal-enriched silt clay matrix.
Charcoal, coleopteran analysis and a 14C date are pending.
