County: Dublin Site name: Merryfalls
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0459
Author: Edmond O’Donovan, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, 120b Greenpark Road, Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 711696m, N 740529m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.403080, -6.320236
Test excavation was carried out on behalf of the Railway Procurement Agency (RPA) at Merryfalls, Co. Dublin. This followed on from a geophysical survey carried out by Target Archaeological Geophysics during 2009 (licence 09R195). The geophysical anomalies in Merryfalls townland were interpreted as a ringfort. A total of three trenches were excavated as part of this assessment.
The geophysical survey identified a circular enclosure measuring c. 30m in diameter. Testing confirmed the presence of a ditch within Trenches 2 and 3. The enclosure ditch was heavily truncated and measured 1.1m wide by 0.45m deep. The profile of the ditch was U-shaped and it had two fills. The upper fill was a mottled brown/grey silty clay with occasional small stones and frequent inclusions of charcoal. The basal fill was grey/brown silty clay with occasional small rounded stones. Few features were recorded in the interior of the enclosure and this further suggests that the site has been partially ploughed out. The site is located on a low rise in a field under arable crops. The field surface at the site, c. 40m in diameter, is strewn with stones and occasional fragments of post-medieval pottery, reflecting the location of the underlying monument.
The enclosure was tentatively dated to the early medieval period on the basis of its size; however, the absence of any diagnostic finds does not preclude the possibility that the site is prehistoric. Circular enclosures have commonly been found to be Bronze Age habitation and burial sites.
