County: Dublin Site name: Coldwinters
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU014-015 - Classified as a ring-ditch Licence number: 17E0436
Author: Jon Stirland, Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit
Site type: Testing - possible dwelling/round house & kiln
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 711891m, N 741564m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.412328, -6.316951
Test trenching was carried out at the site of a proposed development within the townland of Coldwinters, North County Dublin. The site contains a recorded monument, DU014-015, classified as a ring-ditch, and is described within the RMP as located in pasture (formerly the green of a golf course) between the Dublin-Ashbourne Road and the N2. The monument takes the form of a circular cropmark (diam. c. 15m), that currently has no surface expression. It appears very clearly however on an aerial photograph within the Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photography (CUCAP, BDQ 66), which was taken in 1967 before the construction of the golf course. During the site inspection no visible surface evidence for the monument was noted.
Ten archaeological test trenches were excavated within the boundary of the proposed development. The presence of DU014-015 was identified within Trenches 2 and 8, in the form of a circular slot-trench (C009) measuring 10m in diameter with an average depth of between 0.27m to 0.3m. This circular feature appears to represent a circular slot-trench associated with a possible dwelling/round house. No dating evidence was recorded.
20m to the east of the circular slot-trench, also within Trench 2, a keyhole-shaped corn-drying kiln (C003), was recorded, alongside which was a small possible pit-type feature (C004). No further features or deposits of an archaeological nature were recorded within the other test trenches.
Unit 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth
