2013:036 - 6 Temple Villas, Palmerstown Road, Dublin, Dublin

Monitoring was carried out during the construction of a basement at the rear of No. 6 Temple Villas, Palmerstown Road, Dublin 6. The site is located within or adjacent to the constraint area of DU022-081, Battlefield ‘site of’. The Battle of Rathmines took place across the rural hinterland of the city of Dublin in the mid-17^th century in an attempt to stall the Cromwellian Invasion of Ireland. The battle (1649) was a significant victory for the Cromwellian army. The coalition forces, led by James Butler, 1^st Duke of Ormonde, marched 11,000 of his men to the outskirts of Dublin, to take the city from its Parliamentary garrison, which had landed there in 1647. Ormonde took Rathfarnham Castle and camped at Palmerston Park in Rathgar, about 4km south of the city. The area from Ormonde’s camp to the city of Dublin is now a heavily urbanised area, but in 1649 it was open countryside.

Ormonde began inching his forces closer to Dublin by taking the villages around its perimeter and to this end, sent a detachment of troops to occupy Baggotrath Castle, on the site of present-day Baggot Street Bridge.

However, Ormonde was not expecting Michael Jones, the Parliamentary commander, to take the initiative and had not drawn up his troops for battle. Unfortunately for the Royalists, this is exactly what Jones did, launching a surprise attack on 2 August 1649 from the direction of Irishtown with 5000 men and sending Ormonde’s men at Baggotsrath reeling backwards towards their camp in confusion.

Too late, Ormonde and his commanders realised what was going on and sent units into action piecemeal to try to hold up the Parliamentarian advance, so that they could form their army into battle formation. However, Jones’ cavalry simply outflanked each force sent against them, sending them fleeing back south through the townland of Rathmines. The battle became a rout as scores of fleeing Royalist and Confederate soldiers were cut down by the pursuing Roundheads. The fighting finally ended when the English Royalist troops under Murrough O'Brien, 1^st Earl of Inchiquin, mounted a disciplined rear-guard action, allowing the rest to get away. Ormonde claimed he had lost less than a thousand men. Jones claimed to have killed around 4000 Royalist or Confederate soldiers and to have taken 2517 prisoners, while losing only a handful himself.

Monitoring was carried out during the construction of a domestic basement. The site is located on the ground where the Confederate forces withdrew in confusion and were slaughtered by the Cromwellian cavalry. The work involved the inspection of the demolition of the lean-too structures at the side of the main house and during the construction phase for the basement to the rear of the house.

No archaeological deposits or indicators were identified on the site across the basement footprint covering an area measuring 12.5m x 12.5m to the rear of the house, where 0.5m of brown silty clay topsoil, including 19^th-century pottery and wall tile, overlay tan silty plastic boulder clay, from 0.5-2.2m dept.  Underneath was black Dublin hard boulder clay

77 Fairyhill, Bray, Co. Wicklow