County: Wicklow Site name: MACREDIN GOLF COURSE, BROOKLODGE HOTEL, MACREDDIN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 34:9; 34:10 Licence number: 05E0846
Author: Emer Dennehy, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dubln 2.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 731308m, N 694019m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.980821, -6.044589
Moitoring of all ground-disturbance works associated with the construction of an eighteen-hole golf course at Macreddin, Co. Wicklow, commenced in September 2005. The site is within the environs of a graveyard and military village. The proposed development will also entail the construction of seventeen dwelling houses and a clubhouse on the slopes of the Ballycreen River valley. The construction of the golf course is being undertaken in two phases. The initial phase of site works (September–December 2005) concentrated on the removal of topsoil to accommodate the construction of the 10th to the 18th hole, in addition to house sites 1–4. The remainder of the construction work will take place in 2006.
The topsoil was primarily removed by bulldozer, although a track machine utilising a 2m grading bucket was also occasionally used. The topsoil generally consisted of 0.3–0.45m of grey/brown silt clay incorporating occasional fragments of 20th-century glazed ceramics. This overlay an oxidised subsoil composed of 70% shattered slate in a clay matrix. Isolated spreads of heat-altered subsoil and charcoal were identified and would appear to be the remains of gorse fires.
In the vicinity of the 14th–16th holes, the land was under forestry and the stratigraphy of this area was composed of 0.2m of peat over leached grey subsoil composed of 50% shattered slate. In this area the forestry was only removed in the areas necessary to accommodate the construction of the relevant tees, fairways, greens and holes.
The stratigraphy exposed during the monitoring of site works today is highly eroded and consistent with the site’s location on a large river valley.
