2021:340 - Woodlands, Clonshaugh Business & Technology Park, Dublin

Between 26 August and 29 September 2021, archaeological testing and monitoring took place at a proposed development site consisting of two data storage facilities and ancillary works in Woodlands, Clonshaugh Business & Technology Park, Santry, Dublin 17. The proposed development encompasses the townlands of Clonshaugh, Willsborough and Santry which are in the Civil Parishes of Santry and Coolock and in the Barony of Coolock.
The archaeological works consisted of a comprehensive programme of targeted and random test trenching totalling 2,658 linear metres. An additional 17,600m2 within the site boundary contained Japanese Knotweed, the excavation of which was archaeologically monitored in tandem with the test-excavation works. In addition, archaeological monitoring of a temporary haul road that was used for access to the site during construction was undertaken. This haul road, which was constructed on lands that have been previously disturbed/built up, involved the stripping of ground between 0.3m to 1.1m below present ground level with terram and stone introduced for the road.
Test trenching identified a series of modern ceramic and brick and stone field drains traversing the site, and the foundations of a late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century outbuilding with modern concrete flooring associated with Woodlands House was photographed and recorded in the north-east of the development. An east–west oriented field boundary depicted on the first-edition six-inch (1843) and the second-edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (1909) was also recorded as was the townland boundary between Clonshaugh, Santry and Willsborough. A piece of struck chert and a piece of struck flint were recorded from the topsoil of two trenches while a rim sherd of blackware pottery was identified from the fill of the wall foundations of the post-medieval outbuilding. No additional archaeological features were recorded across the 40 trenches that were excavated.
The area of Japanese Knotweed in the north-east of the development was archaeologically monitored. Within this area the knotweed was confined to the upper layer of a large quantity of dumped modern rubble material. As a result of the Japanese Knotweed roots not penetrating the original ground surface, four test trenches were excavated across the site of the Japanese Knotweed to identify any possible archaeological features. Nothing of archaeological significance was recorded within these trenches.
A boundary ditch possibly relating to the tree-lined avenue approaching Willsborough House (no longer extant) or the townland boundary between Willsborough and Santry (E.D. Coolock) was recorded during the monitoring of the temporary haul road in the south-west of the site.
As no additional archaeological features were recorded across the site, it is recommended that no further monitoring or testing of ground works, or any further archaeological mitigation, is required for this site.

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