2016:025 - Castletown House, Pleasure Gardens, Castletown, Kildare

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Kildare Site name: Castletown House, Pleasure Gardens, Castletown

Sites and Monuments Record No.: None Licence number: 15E0070 ext 4

Author: Alan R. Hayden

Site type: 17th-19th-century settlement

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 697763m, N 734113m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.348194, -6.531685

The excavation of service and drainage trenches and clearance for the construction of paths and parterres was monitored as part of the works to allow public use of the area currently known as the ‘Pleasure Gardens’ to the west side of the main house. Much of the area had previously been excavated to varying degrees (M. McQuade 2012). The trench lines were located to avoid the roots of historic trees and the known archaeological features: a 17th-century wall, the 18th-century gardener’s house, a 19th-century pond and cartwheel flower beds. The remains of two 18th-century brick-vaulted cellars, demolished in the late 18th and early 19th century, were encountered and the trenches were re-routed to avoid them. A number of 19th-century lined and unlined drains, some not previously recorded, and cinder pathways were unavoidably cut through. Two sherds of medieval pottery were uncovered from old cultivated soil beneath the west end of the garden.

haydenar@eircom.net