County: Wicklow Site name: Wicklow Arms, Delgany
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 18E0681
Author: Seán Shanahan & Michael Greiner, Shanarc Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 727609m, N 710911m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.133437, -6.092956
Test excavations took place at the Wicklow Arms, Delgany on 13-14 December 2018 in accordance with the requirements of Wicklow County Council Planning Application Ref: 16/639 in relation to the proposed construction of a mixed residential and commercial development and the redevelopment of a listed structure “The Wicklow Arms Public House” (RPS: 08-13/NIAH: 16305005).
The site comprised the existing car park to the rear of the Wicklow Arms Public House.
A hollow-way/road (SMR: WI013-004005) was previously recorded along the northern boundary of the site, and the southern part of the site falls within the Archaeological Zone of Potential for the historic Delgany Graveyard (SMR: WI013-004002).
The initial proposal with regards to archaeological test trenches was to excavate sixteen trenches strategically placed across the proposed development site; however of the initially proposed test trenches only numbers 1-9 were excavated, with the remainder being located in areas with mature trees and Japanese Knotweed groundwork exclusion zones, or areas currently occupied by structures scheduled for demolition.
Four trenches (#2-#5) were placed in such a way as to intersect a roadway shown to have been bisecting the site from north-west to south-east on the 1st edition OS map, probably contemporary with the previously recorded hollow-way shown on the same map; however no remains of this feature were detected.
Trenches were 2m in width, 0.6-1.7m in depth, and varied in length from 11-55m. The stratigraphy across the site was relatively consistent: generally comprising a natural layer of light brown stony clay, sealed by a layer of mid to dark brown silty clay 0.5-0.9m in depth, which was in turn sealed by a layer of grey silty clay 0.1-0.3m in depth. In some areas of the southern trenches the excavated material consisted largely of built-up ground comprising redeposited mid brown clay and modern construction rubble. The upper layers across the site consisted of 0.1-0.3m of grey gravel sealed by 0.05m of tarmac.
No archaeological features were found during excavation. Limited finds consisted of occasional animal bone, post-medieval pottery sherds and clay-pipe fragments from Trenches 1, 3 & 5.
As those areas of the site in closest proximity to the recorded monuments at the north and south of the development area could not be tested, additional monitoring of ground-works in these areas will take place during the construction phase.
Unit 39a, Hebron Business Park, Hebron Road, Kilkenny
