County: Dublin Site name: CARRICKMINES GREAT: Glenamuck Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU026–005 Licence number: C207; E3332
Author: Colm Moriarty, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Settlement deserted - medieval
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 721464m, N 723709m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.249835, -6.179872
A pre-planning assessment was carried out at Glenamuck Road, Carrickmines Great, Co. Dublin. The site consists of an irregular-shaped parcel of land that is bounded by the Glenamuck Road to the south-east, residential housing to the south-west and the M50 and associated link roads to the north-east and north-west. The northern two-thirds of the development site are located within the archaeological constraint zone of Carrickmines Castle, which is a national monument.
Carrickmines was the main fortress of the Walshes, who were one of the most powerful families in south County Dublin during the medieval period. Historical references suggest that the castle was destroyed in 1642 when it was stormed by government forces during the Cromwellian rebellion (Ball 1902). A large-scale excavation was carried out at Carrickmines Castle, directed by Mark Clinton, as part of the south eastern motorway road scheme. This revealed an extensive medieval landscape, which included a revetted fosse, two outer earthen banks and fosses, an earlier ringwork castle-type enclosure, a mill pond and mill race, house sites, industrial features and the main castle entrance (Excavations 2001, No. 335, 00E0525). The majority of these features were identified c. 150–200m to the north-east of the development site.
To investigate if any archaeological features associated with Carrickmines Castle extended into the development site, a total of six test-trenches were excavated. These revealed that natural subsoil was sealed by a thin layer of topsoil in the southern and eastern parts of the site and by dumps of builders’ rubble, up to 1.2m in depth, in the western and northern parts of the site. No features, artefacts or deposits of archaeological significance were identified in any of the test-trenches opened. However, about a third of the site was unavailable for testing due to standing buildings and live services. Although these areas are probably highly disturbed, it still remains possible that unidentified archaeological features survive at these locations.
References
Ball, F.E. 1902 A history of the County Dublin, Part I, Part III. Dublin.
27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2
