2011:231 - SAGGART, Dublin

Housing was proposed for a greenfield site located on the south-western side of Saggart village, Co. Dublin. The site lay to the south of Mill Road and to the north-west of Castle Road. The lands were formerly part of Saggart Paper Mills and had traditionally remained as pasture within the grounds containing industrial buildings (the disused paper mills), which were demolished in 2002. The site lies within the Zone of Archaeological Potential (DU021-034) for Saggart.
Planning permission was granted by South Dublin County Council. Ten trenches were excavated in the two fields subject to redevelopment. The area was relatively flat, with a slight slope towards the east. Both fields were heavily overgrown with neglected pasture in March 2011. The deep tussocks of grass made any identification of surface anomalies impossible. A fence dividing the fields was a low bank on which several large trees grew. This field fence was that recorded in the 1835–43 1st-edition OS 6in. map and the 1937 OS 6in. map.
At the time of the testing, part of the southern field contained several mounds of stockpiled topsoil and uprooted trees, but these did not restrict the layout of the trenches as proposed.
Ten trenches were laid out to give a comprehensive coverage of the site. They were excavated in shallow spits to a maximum depth of 1m, although generally subsoil was reached at 0.45–0.5m. The topsoil was brown friable mineral soil, with no clear differentiation between topsoil and subsoil. The underlying boulder clay was yellow with occasional blue/black stones (decayed limestone). No features of archaeological significance were apparent. No anomalies were identified to indicate anything other than agricultural use of the fields. A few sherds of 18th- to early 20th-century glazed red earthenware and single sherd of window glass were recovered from the topsoil.

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