County: Dublin Site name: MILVERTON GOLF RESROT, Grange (Holmpatrick)/Balcunnin/Ardla/ Milverton Demesne
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 06E0799
Author: William O. Frazer, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 722975m, N 759288m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.569067, -6.143368
Testing in advance of an ‘integrated tourism/recreational facility’ development was undertaken between September and November 2006, and early in 2007, across 126ha of greenfields formerly attached to Milverton Hall. Some 0.7ha of test-trenches were opened, partly on the basis of geophysical survey (D. Harrison, 06R0139; also J. Nicholls, 03R047 and 03R121), and eighteen ‘archaeological areas’ were identified, many of which were inter-visible and clearly linked.
Several of these were related to annexes/fields in the vicinity of the early medieval/medieval St Movee’s ecclesiastical site (DU005–024), including: an annexe ditch enclosure with subrectangular buildings and ditch field systems; another annexe bank and ditch enclosure with settlement deposits, a corn-drying kiln and ditch field systems; two other corn-drying kilns.
Other archaeological areas—most apparently prehistoric or early medieval—included: a multi-phase hilltop with a ring-ditch, cremation burial pits, a burnt mound/fulacht fiadh, two round houses, a cillín (related to St Movee’s) and assorted pits; a trapezoidal building and small oval hut with associated ditch enclosure and field systems; two burnt mounds/fulachta fiadh; another burnt spread and nearby pit; pits/a possible flat cremation cemetery; a ring-ditch with cremation burial pits; a penannular ring-ditch with cremation burial pits; a round house with bank enclosure and ditch field systems; an oval hut with ditch enclosure/field systems; an oval hut; a bank and ditch enclosure with an oval hut, settlement deposits and a nearby hollow routeway filled in with burnt-mound material; a sub-oval ditch enclosure with scattered ditches, pits, post-holes and a later, overlying, post-medieval dump; and a post-medieval rectangular building with associated earthworks and drains.
An assortment of finds, predominantly from the topsoil, were also recovered: lithics (including a siltstone/slate spindle-whorl); a possible iron knife blade (from near St Movee’s); and post-medieval ceramics (mostly early 18th-century sherds from the aforementioned rectangular building area).
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