County: Wicklow Site name: BLESSINGTON DEMESNE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WI005–021 Licence number: 06E0688
Author: Sinéad Phelan, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 697749m, N 714835m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.175001, -6.537816
An assessment was carried out on 24 and 25 July 2006 in Blessington village, Co. Wicklow, in advance of the construction of a national school and theatre. The proposed development site is located to the north-east of the new town centre, Blessington village. The site is located within Blessington Demesne, where WI005–021, a Bronze Age ring-barrow, is situated c. 100m from the proposed development site. Blessington Demesne has been developed into the new town centre since 2002 and a series of archaeological testing and monitoring programmes have been carried out there over the last four years.
Nine trenches were mechanically excavated across the site. Two fields were assessed: Trenches 1–4 were excavated in Field 1 and Trenches 5–9 in Field 2. No features of archaeological significance were identified as result of the archaeological assessment. An area of c. 60m by 30m in the north-eastern corner of Field 2 had been heavily truncated in modern times. This area was truncated to a depth of 1.4m, c. 1m below the level of the natural clays at the site. Therefore, if any archaeological features existed, they would have been destroyed by this modern activity.
27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
