2020:079 - ENTERPRISE CENTRE, NEWMARKET, THE LIBERTIES, DUBLIN 8, Dublin

Test trenching on behalf of Carrowmore Property took place at the site of the former Enterprise Centre, Newmarket, the Liberties, Dublin 8. Test trenching was conditioned to the development by Dublin City Council (Planning Ref.: 3323/17). A limited programme of test trenching has been previously carried out on site by Claire Walsh under licence 19E0430 which encountered three to four building phases and medieval to post-medieval cultivation features, deposits and drainage channels on the site. Recommendations for further work made within the archaeological testing report for the site by Archaeological Projects Ltd (Walsh 2019) suggested that a second phase of test excavation take place after the demolition of buildings on the site.

This second phase of testing was carried out intermittently over the of two weeks during February and March 2020 as areas within the site became available during the demolition process. The trenches were positioned to assesses the level of disturbance caused by the previous development of the site in the later 20th century. The trenches required breaking out of the concrete slab and were subsequently excavated using a mechanical excavator fitted with a flat grading bucket and were located within the footprint of recently demolished buildings which were inaccessible during the first phase of testing.

Testing results confirmed that archaeological features and deposits of later 17th- and 18th-century date are widespread beneath the footprint of the previous structures onsite. Several cultivated soil horizons were identified in places, the majority of which were post-medieval, although one small area of medieval plough soil was also identified.

Unit G1, Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow