2009:296 - CASTLEFARM, Dublin

The owners of the site applied to Fingal County Council for planning permission to construct a stable barn, lairage area, horse walker, sand arena, new gate and access road on their property at Castlefarm, Kilsallaghan, Co. Dublin. An impact assessment, to include a detailed topographical survey, documentary research and test-trenches, was requested.
A series of monuments, DU011–011001 to DU011–011008, lie to the west of the development, within the same field. The complex of monuments is classified as a deserted settlement. A large portion of the individual monuments date to the medieval period but it is possible that there may have been earlier settlement, as, for instance, related to the ecclesiastical enclosure which survives to the east and south of St David’s Church. A cluster of monuments such as this suggests that there had been a nucleated settlement here at least in the medieval and late medieval periods and it may have extended as far southwards as the crossroads, where ^fair green’ and ^site of cross’ are marked on mapping.
Nine trenches were excavated to test the development site. No archaeological material was exposed in Trenches 1–5. A stone drain was exposed in Trench 6 at the bottom of the north–south channel and aligned in the same direction as the channel. The top of the drain was 0.5m below the sod layer here, at approximately the same level as the bottom of the stiff grey/brown boulder clay. The drain measured 0.3m wide by 0.4m deep and was cut into the underlying coarse dark-grey gravel. It consisted of loose, angular stones thrown in with no apparent form or structure. A piece of red brick was exposed in the section face 0.3m above the top of the stone fill. There was no dating material within the stone fill of the drain. There was no evidence in the test-trenches to suggest that the channel may have represented a sunken way or road. An area of charcoal-enriched soil was exposed at the north end of Trench 7. There were no structural features associated with this and no artefacts were recovered from the soil. A stone drain was found in Trench 8. Other features which might be associated with medieval activity such as hearths, field ditches or house remains were not observed. There was no indication of an outer ecclesiastical enclosure associated with the early medieval church site. A sherd of black-glazed ware and a sherd of unglazed red earthenware were the only artefacts recovered.