County: Dublin Site name: TANKARDSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0847
Author: Ellen O’Carroll, 12 St Peter’s Terrace, Glenageary, Co. Dublin.
Site type: Post-medieval brick kiln
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 719679m, N 762543m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.599059, -6.191859
The development site was the subject of a series of pre-development archaeological and architectural assessments (Excavation 2008, No. 496) for a mixed-use regional/district centre with associated car-parking and ancillary works. Located on an elevated position with extensive views of the surrounding countryside and the Irish Sea, the development site is c. 8ha in size and is located c. 1km west of Balbriggan in the townland of Tankardstown. Although there are no known archaeological monuments from within the boundary of the development site, the poorly preserved remains of a late 19th/early 20th-century brick kiln stood in the south-west corner of the field, within the boundary of the development site. This kiln was fully excavated in consultation with the DoEHLG.
The kiln at Tankardstown represents the remains of an intermittent, beehive-shaped, down-draught kiln, constructed at some time around the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th century. It appears from the evidence that it was used for the firing of machine-cut bricks. It is likely that it was a small-scale operation, functioning in response to a local market. At the time of writing, no information was available as to when it ceased operation.
