2006:2149 - BALLINAGEE: Templeteenaun, Wicklow

Excavations at Templeteenaun church and graveyard, Ballinagee townland, Co. Wicklow, have enabled the investigation of a remote medieval settlement site in the Kings River valley in the western Wicklow mountains. The site investigations, funded by the RIA Committee for Archaeology’s Archaeological Research Excavations Grant scheme, form part of UCD School of Archaeology’s multidisciplinary landscape archaeology research and teaching project in the Kings River valley, in the west Wicklow mountains. The Kings River valley research project is significantly linked to archaeology undergraduate teaching in UCD. Archaeology students are introduced to the methods and techniques of archaeological excavation at Templeteenaun, where they excavate, record, photograph and describe archaeological features and subsequently prepare a site excavation report for assessment.

The Kings River Valley Research Project aims to investigate a range of themes: a) the changing patterns of settlement and landscape in the west Wicklow mountains, from prehistory to the modern era; b) the social, political and economic factors driving travel and movement across the Wicklow mountains, from medieval pilgrimage to the 19th-century extraction and exportation of lead and granite; c) the uplands/lowlands relationships between the peoples of the Wicklow mountains and neighbouring regions (e.g. Kildare, River Liffey valley, Dublin), from prehistory to the 19th century. One aspect of the Kings River valley that fits closely with all these themes is the phenomenon of medieval pilgrimage along the valley towards the major monastic and ecclesiastical centre at Glendalough, itself located in the heart of the mountains. This pilgrimage activity involved movement along a route known as St Kevin’s Road and is potentially revealing about social and political relationships between the local inhabitants around Templeteenaun and those of both Glendalough (on the far side of the Wicklow Gap, the highest crossing point of the mountains) and the Kildare and Dublin hinterlands.

The Templeteenaun archaeological site is a medieval church (nave-and-chancel construction, south-west doorway, of probable 11th–12th-century date) situated within a stone-walled enclosure on a hillock overlooking the route of St Kevin’s Road. UCD School of Archaeology has carried out three seasons (with RIA National Committee funding in 2005 and 2006) of excavations at Templeteenaun, amounting to a total of six weeks’ work so far. By 2004, UCD’s archaeological surveys of the site had uncovered a range of interesting features (e.g. the church, an enclosure wall, several cairns, a formal laneway, possible medieval houses and probable post-medieval cillín grave markers). In August 2004, the Department of Archaeology carried out a small archaeological excavation, which has revealed that the site has exciting archaeological potential (Excavations 2004, No. 1844). In 2005, UCD School of Archaeology, supported by an RIA National Committee grant, carried out two weeks of excavations on the site. These excavations were focused on four carefully located trenches. Trench 1 investigated the entrance, a laneway and possible hut site. Finds included hundreds of medieval (probably 12th–14th-century in date) pottery sherds and various iron objects (including a medieval iron rowel spur, probably dated to the 13th century AD). Excavations across the walls of the enclosure (Trench 2–3) also revealed much about the construction and form of the walls, and the presence of a single piece of glazed medieval pottery in the base of a ditch adjacent to the wall (in Trench 2) may help to date the construction of the enclosure wall to the medieval period. Trench 4, opened for the first time in 2005, revealed an unusual cairn, with water-rolled quartz and granite pebbles, possibly indicating its use as a medieval pilgrims’ station or leacht (similar to those found at Glendalough, close to Reefert church).

In 2006, supported by a second RIA grant, UCD School of Archaeology carried out two weeks of excavations on the site. Excavation continued on Trenches 1 and 4. In Trench 1, excavations have now shown that the laneway was quite formally constructed of a kerb-and-rubble fill and this appears to have been built at some time subsequent to the main church enclosure. Excavations also indicate that this lane saw heavy use, presumably through trampling by people and animals, as the routeway’s surface has been significantly eroded down into the subsoil. The midden deposit of broken medieval pottery, charcoal, burnt bone and iron objects outside the enclosure wall continued in 2006 to produce large amounts of finds, although it seems that the base of this midden is being approached. Most strikingly, in the last few days of the 2006 season, a narrow, curving cut feature (the first such feature discovered on the site) was discovered in the laneway subsoil at the enclosure entrance. This may represent part of an earlier structure, perhaps of early medieval or even prehistoric date. It is notable that this cut feature is also located amongst the densest concentration of worked flint, quartz, chert and possible prehistoric pottery and clearly warrants further investigation. Excavations of Trench 4, inside the enclosure, have continued, to reveal a possible medieval pilgrims’ station or cairn, with water-rolled quartz and granite pebbles placed on a formal rectangular platform.

Briefly stated, archaeological excavations at Templeteenaun in 2006 uncovered some significant and still largely unresolved problems. Preceding the stone-walled enclosure and laneway, there is a potential earlier medieval, early medieval or even possible prehistoric structure, represented by a narrow, curving cut feature in the subsoil of the laneway at the enclosure entrance. This feature must precede any medieval (i.e. 12th–13th-century AD) activity on the site, as it must have existed prior to the laneway and it is situated blocking the enclosure entrance. The feature is associated with the most concentrated spread of possible prehistoric worked flint, chert, quartz and potentially pottery on the site.

It can now be confirmed that the medieval church and enclosure was a focus of rural medieval settlement activity, with a dense spread of occupation debris situated immediately outside the entrance consisting of hundreds of pieces of medieval pottery (including both Dublin-type wares and Leinster cooking ware of probable 13th-century date), numerous iron objects (including horse harness equipment), charcoal, burnt bone and worked stone. Investigation of this medieval midden of objects is not yet complete, although our excavations appear to be approaching the base of the feature. It can now also be confirmed that the enclosure entrance and laneway consist of a well-defined, paved and heavily trampled laneway of two walls, leading directly to a formally defined entrance into the enclosure. Investigation of this feature is largely complete, although some details of stratigraphical and chronological relationships should be resolved.

There is a possible medieval/post-medieval ‘hut’ situated beside the laneway and immediately outside the enclosure, which has produced some medieval objects. This is a subrectangular hut, with low rubble walls for the base of a largely turf-built structure. It has a narrow entrance at the south-west corner. The character of this ‘hut’ and the stratigraphical and chronological relationships between it, the midden and the enclosure/laneway walls remains to be resolved.

There is a medieval/post-medieval(?) pilgrims’ station/leacht/cairn situated inside the enclosure (Trench 4). This is a well-built, low rectangular stone platform with large stones and boulders for an edging or kerb feature. On top of the cairn are smaller stones, including water-rolled quartz, granite, sandstone and unusual calcitic stones (probably chosen for their white colour). These are geologically ‘odd’ deposits and must have been carried on to the site from a distant riverbed (Kings River itself). These stones possibly represent its use as a prayer station or leacht (similar to those found at the Upper Lake, Glendalough, close to Reefert church). The stratigraphical and chronological relationship between this feature, the internal activities and the enclosure/laneway walls remains to be resolved. Further investigations are planned for 2007.

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