County: Dublin Site name: Permanent School, Rathbeale and Glen Ellen Roads, Oldtown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: William O. Frazer, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Early medieval field system
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 716234m, N 748348m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.472334, -6.249151
Testing in advance of a proposed school development, just north of the Rathbeale Road and south of Glen Ellen Road, Oldtown, Swords, was undertaken in August 2007 in response to a planning request for additional information. Most of the proposed site is occupied by a temporary school site; the remainder is ‘greenfield’. The proposed development lies just west of the north-west annexe/enclosure of the Oldtown/Mooretown early medieval/medieval ecclesiastical complex (identified through geophysical survey and previous archaeological investigations; J. Nicholls, 03R095, and J. Leigh, 05R170; see Baker 2004).
Three archaeological features were identified near to the rabbit-ear-shaped north-west annexe, outside of the sharply defined (i.e. deep, wide) enclosure ditch along much of the annexe’s exterior: charcoal-rich overspill from just beyond the outer edge of the annexe enclosure ditch and two curvilinear ditches outside the annexe (32m by 0.8–1.1m wide by 0.2–0.4m deep; 26.5m by 0.3–0.6m wide by 0.1–0.35m deep; upper surfaces at c. 26.9–27m OD). Previous limited test excavation by Christine Baker (Excavations 2003, Nos 654–6, 03E1080) suggests that the enclosures in this north-west annexe represent field systems associated with the complex; possibly some of the larger ‘cells’ served as fields for arable cultivation, but perhaps others served instead as ‘corral’ enclosures for livestock. The newly identified ditches do not form enclosures. Instead they may be ‘driving boundaries’ concerned with land division, water management and animal husbandry, helping to funnel livestock into corrals within the north-west annexe. The ditches are less substantial than the geophysical anomalies that outline, and lie within, the north-west annexe proper and are filled with soil similar to the surrounding natural subsoil; this provides a likely explanation as to why they did not register in the earlier geophysical survey.
Reference
Baker, C. 2004 A lost ecclesiastical site in Fingal. Archaeology Ireland 18(3).
