2019:239 - Crodaun, Celbridge, Kildare

The site, off the R405 Maynooth Road, has an area of approximately 9.08 hectares (22.4 acres). It is composed of three large fields currently in use as grazing land and a small triangular field, falling gently from north to south. The intervening field boundaries comprise mature hedgerows with a tarmacked laneway in the south-western part. A geophysical survey on the site, 18R0212, was undertaken in November 2018 by Target Archaeological Geophysics. This survey indicated a large enclosure in the south-western portion of the proposed development with other responses of likely archaeological significance in the northern and south-eastern portions of the site, beyond the enclosure perimeter. The results from survey suggest it is highly likely that buried archaeological remains extend through the remaining western portion of the site, which was unavailable to geophysical survey due to poor terrain.
Test trenches were located principally to investigate anomalies identified during geophysical survey while others were located to assess the archaeological potential of the general area. 23 trenches and a rectangular cutting, 17.5m², were excavated by mechanical excavator using a 16-tonne tracked excavator with a 2m grading bucket. The subsoil in general comprised grey brown and orange clay over loose limestone bedrock. Several amendments were undertaken to the original Method Statement due to a variety of on-site conditions.
A total of four discrete areas (Areas 1-4) of archaeological activity were recorded. They comprised a curvilinear feature in Area 1 representing a field system, curvilinear and linear features in Area 2 representing a large enclosure, bivallate in its northern arc, and probable related field systems, and, based on the morphology and lack of datable artifacts likely represents early medieval activity. A possible structure in Area 3 produced no datable artifacts and may be either prehistoric or medieval while the bowl furnace in Area 4 may date from the Iron Age to the early modern period.
The excavated material from the test-trenches was spread beside the trench and visually scanned and then subject to metal-detecting (19R004). All test slots into potential archaeological features were excavated by hand while the remainder of features visible in the test-trenches were scanned using the metal detector.
In Trench 8 the remains of a bowl furnace were identified. Ten separate pieces of iron slag, 129g in total, was recovered from the topsoil beside the trench through the use of the metal detector.
No other archaeological artifacts were identified during the test-excavation. Numerous modern iron pieces and other modern debris were identified from the excavated topsoil but not retained.

Archer Heritage Planning, 8 Beat Centre, Stephenstown, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.