County: Wicklow Site name: Seasonpark/Newtownmountkennedy/ Monalin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E1423
Author: Edmond O’Donovan, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 725750m, N 706562m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.094815, -6.122414
A total of 28 trenches (2450 linear metres) were excavated on a proposed housing development site on the rural fringes of Newtownmountkennedy village in Co. Wicklow. The trenches ranged between 5m and 225m in length.
The test excavation identified six potential new archaeological features/sites within the proposed development area. A burnt pit of uncertain date was identified in Trench 3; this feature appeared to be isolated. The truncated remains of a pit containing burnt stone were identified in Trench 9; the trench runs along low-lying ground drained to the east by a small brook or stream. The topography is consistent with an area where one might expect to find burnt mounds. Evidence for burning (charcoal) and spreads of decayed bricks was discovered in Trench 6. A fulacht fiadh and debris from another fulacht were identified in Trenches 17 and 19. In situ burning and charcoal was uncovered in Trench 23.
These features (spreads of burnt stone, charcoal and evidence for in situ burning) represent ephemeral evidence indicative of the types of deposits/features that are likely to come to light should development proceed. It is likely that a portion of the features will have no greater surface expression upon further examination, although the evidence for charcoal and burning uncovered in Trench 23 or the possible fulacht fiadh uncovered in Trench 17 may turn out to be classifiable archaeological monuments.
The upcast topsoil was examined, but (with the exception of golf balls) little in the way of artefacts was present. Only five sherds of post-medieval pottery were identified in the test-trenches. These dated to the 18th and 19th century and consisted of transfer-printed ware and creamwares. The relative lack of pottery in the topsoil was notable.
An analysis of the historic maps indicates that the field systems that survive at the site today were in place in the early 19th century and are illustrated on the first-edition OS map (1838) with very little differences. The fields are large, open and rectangular. The proposed development site is in part within the estate that surrounds Monalin House and the morphology of the fields is strongly suggestive of an 18th-century origin.
