2006:696 - SAGGART: Castle Road, Dublin

This site was identified during monitoring of topsoil-stripping. The proposed development is located within the zone of archaeological potential which defines Saggart settlement (DU021–034). Although plans of the proposed development have yet to be finalised, it will be in the form of a residential development comprising both townhouses and apartments with car-parking spaces, associated landscaping and site works. The assessment is based on the entire area of the proposed development.

Over the course of the excavation, 105 distinct archaeological contexts were identified and recorded; 45 archaeological features were identified. These consisted of five pits, six linear ditches, one curvilinear ditch, three possible drains, one stone-filled linear ditch, twenty stake-holes, one post-hole, a post-medieval layer/garden soil, three charcoal-rich deposits, two hearths and two post-medieval drains. The depth of the topsoil was 0.5–0.25m. The natural subsoil varied from a orange/brown stony silty clay to the west and a softer yellow silty clay to the east. Features cut into the yellow subsoil were easy to detect, whereas features cut into the darker natural were harder to identify. The stratigraphy on site was identified where pits truncated other features and where spreads were overlaying contexts.

The ditches and the pits on this site have been dated to the mid-14th century from pottery recovered from the features. The larger curvilinear ditch has been tentatively placed in the mid-14th century. Post-excavation research is under way and the results of palaeoenvironmental, geological, radiocarbon dating, socio-historical/geographical and artefact studies will be incorporated in the excavation findings.

32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2