County: Dublin Site name: Pale Boundary, Clay Farm (Phase II), Kilgobbin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU026-087 & DU026-115 Licence number: 17E0585 ext.
Author: Steve Hickey, Courtney Deery Heritage Counsultancy
Site type: Earthwork
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 720010m, N 724400m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.256369, -6.201390
Informed by the results from two test trenches excavated by Rice under licence 17E0585 (Jan 2018) this excavation centered on a section of the continuation of recorded sections of the Pale Boundary (DU026-087 & DU026-115) over an area of 47.2m (north-west/south-east) x 70m. Excavation works were carried out by a crew of six archaeologists and took place over seventeen days from 20 August to 11 September 2018.
The purpose of the excavation was to preserve the earthwork by record due to the planned development of essential construction infrastructure at this point. The excavation also aimed to establish a date for the earthwork if possible. Unfortunately no charcoal or datable material was discovered in the enhanced bank which appears on the northwestern side of the site for c.18m and the south-eastern side of the site near the limit of excavation.
Where the Pale boundary is visible in the Clay Farm development lands it appears to have been formed by the enhancement of a natural scarp. Excavation revealed that parts of the Pale Boundary in this 47.2m section have been enhanced to create a steeper gradient. The gradient and likely presence of associated planting would however have served as an obstacle to pillaging raids mainly by hindering and delaying cattle rustling. No ditches were identified during excavation works, and except for the bank at the top of the slope and evidence for 19th-century landscaping/agriculture, no finds or deposits of archaeological interest were uncovered. The excavation also demonstrated that the lower ground to the north-east of the bank is truncated by modern service trenches and is substantially disturbed; it is possible that this disturbance may have eliminated an original ditch feature. The entire 47.2m x 70m area was reduced to natural undisturbed subsoil layers except in areas containing known existing services.
The excavation confirms the disparity in the defensive development of sections of the medieval earthwork over short distances and highlights the Pale Boundary as an earthwork utilizing natural topography in parts more so than a formal and continuously defended unbroken border.
CDHC, Lynwood House, Ballinteer Road, Dublin 16
