County: Dublin Site name: Willie Pearse Park, Windmill Road, Crumlin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU018-039 Licence number: 13E0449
Author: Melanie McQuade
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 712365m, N 731747m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.324041, -6.313313
An assessment was carried out on the site of a new sports changing facility located adjacent to the site of an old windmill (DU018-039). The windmill was probably of the ‘tower mill’ type, with a fixed masonry base and rotating wooden sails. It was first depicted on the 1837 OS map but may pre-date the map by some time. There are no visible surface remains of this site, which may have been located under the existing sports complex, but the cartographic evidence suggests the windmill had a circular tower.
Four 0.8m-wide test trenches were mechanically excavated along the foundation lines and within the footprint of the proposed changing facility. Trenches 1-3 were excavated through a loose asphalt surface and measured 27m, 11m and 3.5m respectively. Trench 4 was 25m long and was dug through a grassed area to the east of a modern wall that runs between the existing swimming pool building and the playing pitches.
The ground level was 45.5m OD and subsoil lay at 0.5m. The test trenches revealed that much of the site had been disturbed by previous works associated with the construction of the swimming pool and pitches. No evidence was uncovered for the windmill (DU018-039; DCIHR 18-14-035) and no other archaeological features or finds were identified. The earliest items revealed were sherds of 18th/19th-century pottery recovered from topsoil.
Archaeology Plan, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2
