2018:258 - Newtown, Dublin Airport Logistics Park, Fingal, Dublin

Testing was undertaken to locate a possible ringfort in a green field site in Dublin Airport Logistics Park in Fingal, in the townland of Newtown, Co. Dublin. The clients, Rohan Holdings Ltd., are developing the site. Testing was undertaken in January/February 2018.
The Park is situated on the former St Margaret’s Open Golf Course, to the east of the M2 motorway and north of Junction 5 on the M50 motorway. Dublin Airport is located to the east.
Two archaeological sites, ringfort DU014-006001- (71958 742457) and possible ringfort DU014-006002- (711825 742448) are located within the development site. The possible ringfort DU014-006002 is located approximately 50m to the west of ringfort DU014-006001. Testing (17E0569) was undertaken on the second site DU14-006001- and is the subject of a separate summary.
Ringfort DU014-006002- is described as follows on www.archaeology.ie:
A series of aerial photographs taken after site destruction (BDR 27, BDQ 65, BGM, 70, AVS 38, 37) shows detailed cropmark evidence for two distinct building phases on the site. A roughly circular enclosure (diam. c. 45m) with field system attached to the west appears to pre-date the ringfort (DU014-006001-) levelled in 1953 (Stout and Stout 1992, 5-14).

The wording of the entry for ringfort DU014-006002 on www.archaeology.ie is the same as part of the wording for the entry for ringfort DU014-006001. An examination of the aerial photographs (BDR 27, BDQ 65, BGM, 70, AVS 38, 37) held in the archives in the National Monuments Service failed to show any trace of a crop mark in the area of the possible site of DU014-006002. Further examination of late 20th-century aerial photographs also failed to display any trace of the site (Leo Swan Photograph Collection). By contrast detailed cropmark evidence for DU014-006001, as described in the www.archaeology.ie text, was clearly visible on both sets of aerial photographs.
In addition the ringfort DU014-006002 is not marked on the historical editions of the Ordnance Survey maps and was not recorded during testing of the site in 2005 in conjunction with a planning application to Fingal County Council. No trace of possible ringfort DU014-006002, previously identified as a crop mark, was recorded within the development site during the previous phases of archaeological work at the site.

A programme of testing was devised to locate and establish the nature and extent of possible ringfort DU014-006002 in order to assess the significance of the site and the potential impacts of the proposed development on the site. A measured drone survey of the stripped site was conducted in January 2018 and this was used as the foundation survey to record the site.
The site was identified using www.archaeology.ie and the digital copy of the SMR map. A test trench measuring 55m north-south x 1.5m wide was first excavated across the area of the possible site. This trench was then widened to 7m wide (Trench A). Two perpendicular offshoot trenches were then excavated measuring 20m east-west x 3m wide (Trench B) and another measuring 23m east-west by 3m wide (Trench C). Nothing of archaeological significance was found in any of the test trenches. The sputh end of the north-south trench had a different subsoil which appears to represent differential groundwater levels.
A separate test trench was excavated 25m east of the site of the possible ringfort to investigate a raised ridge of ground (Trench D). This ridge appears to have been a golf course feature and contained modern buried rubbish.

The excavation of test trenches failed to produce any evidence of the existence of the site. It is suggested, based on the following considerations, that the possible ringfort does not exist, within the area of the development site;
1. the lack of physical stratigraphic archaeological evidence derived from testing the area in 2018 and 2005
2. the lack of annotation on the relevant cartographic sources
3. the duplication of a site description on www.archaeology.ie
4. the absence of a cropmark, notwithstanding the existence of a very clear cropmark for DU014-006001, on two sets of aerial photographs.

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