2018:634 - St Fintan's Park, Kill of the Grange, Dublin

An excavation was carried out at St Fintan’s Park, Kill of the Grange, Dublin within the construction corridor for a drainage pipeline which traversed the zone of notification for Kill of the Grange Church (National Monument No. 207, DU023-015001), well and bullaun stone (National Monument 587, DU023-015003) and graveyard (DU023-015002). The drainage works, associated with construction of a residential development to the north (Planning Ref: D15A/0347), were carried out between 13 December 2017 and 26 January 2018.

The south-east limit of the pipeline corridor (c. 45m length) passed within 6m of the current graveyard wall traversing the zone of notification for the church. The current excavation was undertaken on behalf of Elliot Group in response to a reported threat to the National Monument received by the Monument Protection Division of the National Monuments Service (NMS) on 15 December 2017. Monitoring of groundworks proceeded from 5 January 2018 and archaeological features were immediately identified within a section of the pipeline corridor adjacent to the graveyard wall. These features were investigated and a mitigation strategy agreed with the NMS.

A number of archaeological features were excavated, or partially excavated, where exposed within the pipeline wayleave. These included six small pits, a shallow gully, two large ditches, the boulder core of an inner bank and two inhumation burials. The burials and curving ditch were dated through Accelerated Mass Spectroscopy (14C) to the 6th or 7th centuries, while the larger ditch, gully and inner bank were artefactually dated to the 12th and 13th centuries. Interestingly one of the burials deviates from the normative practice of the time, with the body deposited in the curve of an open ditch in a prone position. Deviant burial may indicate punitive treatment of an individual or suggest a penitent custom.

Despite the limited size of the excavation area, the information retrieved represents important progress in our understanding of both the early medieval and medieval development of the Kill of the Grange site.

The excavations have unearthed evidence of the earliest phases of activity at the site, particularly in relation to dating of the ditch fill which represents activity close to the cusp of the advent of Christianity in Ireland. Physical evidence corroborating the well-documented medieval activity at Kill of the Grange has been gained which may provide information on the nature of the agricultural ‘village of the Church' documented from the 12th century.

However, the interpretation of these findings are necessarily conjectural given the limitations of the excavation area, particularly with regard the broader landscape suggestions relating to the ditches and enclosures.

Unit G1 Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow