2008:377 - Cappogue, Dublin

Testing carried out by Johnny Ryan along the Ballycoolin Road realignment corridor uncovered four modern field drains and a quarry that was marked on the first- and second-edition OS maps. A section of the road realignment corridor on the northern side of the existing road and to the north and north-east of the recorded site of Cappogue Castle (DU014–028) was not accessible during the testing programme and was monitored by the writer under an extension to the testing licence. An area of archaeological significance (c. 140m by 10m) was identified here and excavations were carried out in advance of construction works. The excavations uncovered evidence for medieval and post-medieval settlement but much of the central area of the excavation site had been subject to previous ground disturbance during the insertion of a water mains and an associated manhole.
The remains of a circular ditched enclosure were uncovered on the western end of the site, to the east of which were two linear ditches, a series of pits, gullies and a stone-lined drain. Further evidence for settlement activity was uncovered c. 30m to the east, where a series of intercutting linear ditches and stone-lined drains represent the northern extent of the site excavated on the southern side of Ballycoolin Road (see above No. 376, 06E0228 ext., and Excavations 2007, No. 437). Thus the remains of a large medieval settlement (c. 210m by 120m) have now been recorded on either side of Ballycoolin Road, around the site of the castle.
Only the western side of the circular enclosure survived but the remains indicated an original diameter of 14m. The enclosure was defined by a ditch measuring 2.4m wide and 0.42m deep. A 2.5m-wide band of metalling that ran along the external edge of the ditch may represent the remains of a walkway or a denuded bank. The remains of a north–south-orientated drainage ditch and a field boundary were located 5m and 7m to the east of the enclosure ditch respectively. These linear ditches and the enclosure ditch all extended beyond the northern extent of the excavation site and in the absence of a stratigraphic relationship between these features it is not clear whether they were in contemporary use. A series of pits, gullies and a curvilinear stone-lined drain were uncovered to the east of these ditches and their location indicates that all but one of these features (a subcircular pit) would have been external to the circular enclosure. These features include three oval pits (c. 1.5m by 0.5m) and three closely set linear gullies, two of which were perpendicular to each other. Structural remains are indicated by a shallow north-east/south-west orientated slot-trench (9m long by 0.32m wide) and a curvilinear stone-lined drain located a short distance to the east of these features.
An area of prolonged settlement activity on the eastern end of the site is represented by a series of intercutting ditches and gullies dating to the medieval period. A large (2m wide) north–south-orientated boundary ditch was uncovered at the eastern edge of the excavation area. The main focus of activity lay 6m to the west of this ditch, where the remains of a north-west/south-east wall were suggested by a single row of stones that ran along the southern end of the excavation area for c. 11m. An east–west-orientated ditch lay to the north of the stone. The ditch was 12m long and 0.3m deep and there was evidence for several recuts along its length. A curvilinear stone-lined drain fed into the eastern end of this ditch and both features were truncated by post-medieval activity on this part of the site. To the north of the east–west ditch were a series of five linear ditches, a curvilinear ditch and two small stone-lined drains. The ditches were generally orientated north–south with one running east–west and the curvilinear ditch running north-east/south-west. They averaged 0.8m wide and 0.12m deep and had homogenous silty clay fills.
Post-medieval activity was concentrated on the eastern end of the site. Here a stone bank was constructed along the southern edge of the medieval wall foundation and extended for 13m along the southern edge of excavation. It was orientated north-west/south-east and was a maximum of 1.5m wide and 0.5m high. Two east–west-orientated post-medieval ditches were located to the north of the bank, where they cut through the medieval features on the south-eastern end of the site.
The archaeological features on this site continue into the greenfield area beyond the northern limit of excavation and a series of features uncovered outside the north-western edge of the road-take have been preserved in situ. These include a medieval stone-lined pit and an east–west-orientated ditch (2.2m wide and 0.84m deep) with waterlogged fills. The latter was sealed by a metalled surface of post-medieval date.
Preliminary analysis of the finds from this site indicates that they include locally manufactured and imported pottery of medieval and post-medieval date, a medieval wooden bowl, several metal items and fragments of slag.