County: Kildare Site name: Dunmurry Link Road, Bishopsland, Kildare Town
Sites and Monuments Record No.: none Licence number: 15E0280
Author: Donald Murphy
Site type: Non Archaeological
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 693953m, N 708921m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.122550, -6.596300
Testing at Bishopsland, Kildare Town took place in advance of the construction of the Dunmurry Link Road at Bishopsland, which will link the Dunmurry Road (R401) to the Rathbride Road (R415). The work was carried out by Derek Gallagher of Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit (ACSU) for Archaeological Management Solutions who were acting on behalf of Kildare County Council, on 25 June 2015.
It is proposed that the Dunmurry Link Road at Bishopsland will link the Dunmurry Road (R401) to the Rathbride Road (R415). The proposal consists of a new 7m-wide single lane carriageway which is 274m long and a 7.5m overlay section at the tie-in at the Dunmurry Rise end. The scheme also includes the overlaying of 302m of existing 7m-wide single lane carriageway at Rathbride Abbey Street mainline and 12m of junction tie-ins. Other associated works include the construction of new kerbs, drainage (including installation of an additional attenuation tank), public lighting, landscaping and traffic calming. The assessment of the proposed development recommended test trenching of the greenfield areas associated with this development.
A single test trench was excavated along the centre line of the proposed route of the new link road. The trench was excavated east-west and measured approximately 260m in length and was excavated to a depth varying between 0.7m and 1m below current ground level. This consisted mostly of made-up ground including concrete, pipe fragments and other surplus excavated material from the nearby housing estate. No archaeological finds or features were exposed. The historic maps show the site area as greenfield with no obvious structures or monuments recorded. There appeared to be two field boundary ditches crossing the test trench in the historic 25 inch map (1907–09) and one boundary ditch in the historic 6 inch map (1837-38), but these did not appear in the test trench.
Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit, Unit 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth
