2006:2164 - BLESSINGTON DEMESNE, Wicklow

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.