2013:038 - Ballynakelly Ringfort II, Ballynakelly, Dublin

DU021-105, an enclosure in Ballynakelly townland, Newcastle Lyons, was added to the Record of Monuments and Places in 2010 or later based on the archaeological findings of Ciara McCarthy between 2007 and 2010. The evidence for this monument comes from analysis of vertical and oblique aerial photographs that show a sub-rectangular enclosure of approximately 50m diameter with a second possible circular enclosure just inside, within (and apparently respecting) a larger trapezoidal field. The enclosure appears to have a formal entrance at the north-west defined by two parallel anomalies probably representing ditches, as well as a second narrower enclosing band at this point. Notably, this feature seems to be traversed by rectilinear anomalies parallel with or perpendicular to the enclosing field boundaries, supporting an early origin. The enclosure does not appear on the OS maps.

The monument is currently situated in a rough overgrown field which in the late 2000s was used as storage for construction supplies. This had left the site of the monument in a very overgrown, disturbed state with deposits of stone and spoil spread across the area as well as areas of trees and shrubs and very deep machine ruts. There are no visible remains of the monument above ground.

The enclosure was subjected to geophysical survey in May 2013 by Earthsound, however due to extensive modern disturbance the survey was unable to identify any part of it. The geophysics did however find numerous potential prehistoric features to the south. A programme of test-trenching was subsequently undertaken across the enclosure. The main ditches of a c. 45m-diameter sub-rectangular enclosure were identified, as well as numerous probable archaeological features in the north of the enclosure. However the extensive modern disturbance over the site was noted to have truncated large parts of the monument (notably the south-eastern half) and no topsoil was present in this area at all.

Although no dateable material was recovered from the enclosure, hand excavated sections through the ditches and features suggest it may form the remains of a defended farmstead dating to the mid to late 1st millennium AD i.e., a ringfort. This enclosure is roughly comparable in size to the ringfort (Ballynakelly 1, 06E176?) excavated by McCarthy in 2006. The Ballynakelly 1 ringfort was situated just under 300m north (centre to centre) of this enclosure, and the early medieval field boundaries associated with Ballynakelly 1 were situated 200m to the north. These distances echo the sizes of early medieval landholding units called Ocaire (Young Lords) of 13.9ha and Boaire (Cow Lords) at 27.8ha cited in ancient legal tracts (McLeod 1986, cited in Stout 1997, 110-112?) the radius of a 13.9ha circle is 200m and the radius of a 27.8ha circle is 295m. This phenomenon has been noted at other sites, for example at Lusk Co. Dublin where a hypothetical ringfort lay 295m from an excavated ringfort and 200m from an early medieval field boundary, possibly suggesting one housed the lord of the other (Giacometti 2011?).

The first edition OS map notes several narrow trapezoidal fields in this area sited off partially depicted narrow laneways. Similar narrow laneways to the south-east of Newcastle are visible on earlier maps (e.g. Rocque 1760?). On Kendrick’s map of the holdings of the Canons of St Patrick’s Cathedral 1762 (National Archives M.3006) and the Aylmer Estate Map of 1722 (Simms, 1986?) the laneways are shown as being integrated in a widespread pattern of scattered fields developed from the medieval open field system. A number of these ditches that extended into the Lamberton Hotel site were excavated by Ciara McCarthy in 2007 (C40, C76 and C118?) and McCarthy concluded that they dated to the early medieval period or later based on the presence of iron smithing slag (C41, Samples 3 and 4; McCarthy 2010, 68-9?) but also noted some

evidence that they dated to or post-dated the 13th century based on medieval pot-sherds around the base of the ditch (ibid, 67-8). Overall, a broad medieval or early post-medieval date for the laneways and trapezoidal field seems probable.

Archaeology Plan, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2