County: Dublin Site name: Kinsaley townland, Malahide
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU015-002001- Licence number: 14E0009
Author: Dermot Nelis
Site type: Possible medieval pit
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 721550m, N 743220m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.425067, -6.171102
The development involved the construction of 38 two-storey dwellings, a playground, landscaped open space, a riparian strip, new boundary treatments, ESB sub-stations, underground pumping station, ancillary site and engineering works and new vehicular and pedestrian entrances, all on a site of 2.84 hectares.
A medieval church (DU015-002001) is located approximately 25m east of the eastern end of the development area. It is recorded as a plain, rectangular building, aligned east-west and built of random rubble masonry. A rectangular walled graveyard (DU015-002002) encloses the remains of the church. There is a kink in the wall along the south-east boundary which possibly indicates the former existence of an earlier enclosure. There are 19th- and 20th-century memorials within the graveyard (www.archaeology.ie).
Five test trenches were excavated. A small possible pit containing a sherd of medieval pottery was revealed within Trench 3. The eastern side of this feature extended beyond the trench and as such was preserved in situ during test trenching.
No additional archaeological features or artefacts were revealed as a result of testing.
It was recommended that the eastern part of the possible pit discovered in Trench 3 be fully excavated during the monitoring stage. Monitoring, which has been carried out with the assistance of Peter Kerins, is ongoing at the time of writing but it has not extended to the location of the possible pit. No archaeological features or artefacts have been revealed so far as a result of carrying out the monitoring.
36 Fingal Street, Dublin 8
