County: Kildare Site name: Dunboyne Road, Maynooth
Sites and Monuments Record No.: None Licence number: 14E0437
Author: Martin Byrne,
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 694414m, N 738486m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.388090, -6.580662
A Planning Application for a residential development of 112 two-storey houses and a single-storey crèche facility adjoining the existing Castle Park housing development, submitted to Kildare County Council, resulted in the issuing of a ‘Request for Further Information’ (RFI) by the planning authority. Such RFI included a number of items, of which one dealt with Archaeological Heritage, and required that the development be subjected to an Archaeological Impact Assessment (AIA), including testing.
There are no archaeological monuments listed as being located within the development lands. No surface features of archaeological potential were noted by a surface reconnaissance of the lands undertaken in advance of the commencement of testing. The nearest monument is a Holy Well (KD006-013) in Carton Demesne, approx. 250m to the east of the site boundary.
A total of 112 test trenches of varying lengths and orientations, were excavated within the boundaries of the site. All trenches were excavated by machines fitted with toothless ditching/grading buckets (1.5 – 1.8m wide), following which the sides and bases of the trenches were cleaned by hand and visually examined. In addition, all the spoil generated by the excavation of the test trenches was ‘raked-over’ in an attempt to increase the potential for the recovery of archaeological artefacts.
No features or deposits of archaeological interest were uncovered during testing. However, a total of five body sherds of Saintonge green glazed pottery of 13th/14th-century date, together with two sherds of Leinster Cooking Ware of late 12th-14th-century date were recovered.
Byrne Mullins & Associates, 7 Cnoc na Greine Square, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare
