County: Antrim Site name: Orwell House Nursing Home and Nos 108–110, Orwell Road, Rathgar
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU022–096 Licence number: 07E0287
Author: Antoine Giacometti, Arch-Tech Ltd, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.
Site type: Possible post-medieval industrial features
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 715693m, N 729716m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.305082, -6.264117
A programme of monitoring was started at this large site in 2007 for the refurbishment of Orwell House, a protected structure and formerly Rathgar House, and the construction of new blocks for nursing home units and other facilities in the surrounding grounds. The development site lies within the archaeological constraint zones of a mill-race complex that runs just south of the site boundary (DU022–096(01)) and a millpond in the vicinity of Orwell Park (DU022–096(02)). These mill features are situated in the valley of the River Poddle, which is located directly to the south of the site.
Orwell Road was originally called Windmill Road on account of the numerous windmills here, reflected in the three windmill sites nearby. An octagonal tower situated just outside the eastern boundary of the site, which is not a recorded monument, may be the base of an additional post-medieval windmill.
Approximately three-quarters of the site, to the south and west of Orwell House, have been monitored to date and no archaeological material has been encountered so far. The remaining monitoring is scheduled to be carried out in 2008 in the most archaeologically sensitive eastern part of the site near the mill-race.
