2008:384 - Dublin Airport Logistics Park, Coldwinters, Dublin

Testing was undertaken in the area of a proposed development at Dublin Airport Logistics Park, Coldwinters, Co. Dublin. The area was formerly used as a golf-course (St Margaret’s). The overall area of development comprises a total of some 62.6ha on lands divided between the townlands of Coldwinters and Newtown. It is bounded to the north and south by field boundaries, to the east by the R122 and to the west by the N2 dual carriageway. A private road linking the N2 and the R122 runs through the centre of the development site. The development consists of warehouse facilities and ancillary groundworks. Some areas of the development site have already undergone different phases of archaeological investigations, including two episodes of large-scale intensive testing which took place in an area to the north of the present site in 2005 by Ellen O’Carroll (Excavations 2005, No. 409) and in 2007 by Michael Tierney and M. Rooney.
Testing was undertaken between 9 and 19 June 2008. A total of 32 trenches with a total length of 3,423m were opened, 10m apart, across the site. The work was completed using a mechanical excavator fitted with a 2.4m grading bucket to excavate topsoil to the level of potential archaeological horizons. The area was under high thick grass and all the features associated with the golf-course were levelled out prior to the development. The topsoil largely consisted of a brownish-yellow sandy clay, 0.2–0.4m in depth, overlying a layer of dark-greyish-brown sandy clay, 0.2–0.4m in depth, with moderate to frequent stones. The subsoil was a mid-greyish-brown sandy clay with moderate inclusions of stones. Besides a number of land drains associated with the golf-course and a few modern field boundaries, there was no evidence of any deposits or features of archaeological significance uncovered during the testing of the site.