County: Dublin Site name: Cruiserath and Goddamendy
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 15E0395
Author: Annette Quinn
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 707952m, N 742004m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.417101, -6.376024
Testing of proposed roads and monitoring of ground works in the vicinity of Cruiserath House within a development site at the Bristol Myers Squibb facility, Cruiserath, Dublin was undertaken in 2015. Planning permission was granted for the construction of a new Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Facility to the north of the existing BMS Pharmaceutical Campus. The lands, while largely vacant, have undergone considerable disturbance in recent decades. While grass and other vegetation had re-colonised much of the site, hardcore was visible in many places suggesting that topsoil had been removed from much of the development area.
Nine test trenches were excavated along the proposed access roads at the north-west and north-east part of the development site. The trenches varied in length from 14m to 44m, 1.8m in width and 0.2-0.85m in depth. Modern infill was noted at the north-west side of the site, primarily in Trench 1, and accounted for the greatest trench depth in this area. Elsewhere on the site modern disturbance/fill was also apparent but not to the depth noted at the north-west. In general the stratigraphy encountered in the trenches varied throughout the site. The majority of the trenches were located in ‘brown field’ areas in which grass and sod was no longer extant.
Modern infill was encountered in Trenches 1 and 2 at the north-west side of the site. Further to the north-east, Trenches 3 and 4 were located in a green field area in which there was little modern disturbance. At the north and north-east, Trenches 5-9 were located in brown field areas where topsoil with occasional modern inclusions overlay a grey clay natural. Natural subsoil was exposed in all trenches, which varied from a beige-orange to grey clay which became particularly stoney at the north side of the site. A clay and stone-filled land drain was exposed in Trench 9 and is likely to be 19th-20th-century in date.
No archaeological finds, features or deposits were noted in any of the excavated trenches.
Tobar Archaeological Services, Saleen, Midleton, Co. Cork
