County: Dublin Site name: Gallanstown, Cherry Orchard, Dublin 10
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 22E0522
Author: Maeve McCormick
Site type: Fulacht fiadh
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 707702m, N 732953m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.335844, -6.382867
Test-excavations were undertaken at Cherry Orchard, Dublin 10, Site 4, on 11-13 July 2022 in sunny conditions. The site covers an area of c.11.28ha.
A magnetic gradiometer survey was carried out within the area in June 2022 by B. Korfanty of Archer Heritage Ltd under License No 22R0221 on c. 2.13ha, the portion suitable for geophysical survey within the application area. The survey located a variety of magnetic anomalies, none of which were definitively archaeological in nature. It was recommended that test excavations should be carried out across the site.
A total of 14 trenches were excavated measuring 1584 linear metres (3168 m sq). Topsoil (C1) was dark, orange-brown, silty-clay between 0.15-0.0.4m in depth with compact, brownish-yellow, stoney clay subsoil (C2).
Archaeological features in the form of patches of burnt mound material were recorded in Trench 12 located in the south-east of Site 4. Trench 12 contained one patch of fulacht material measuring c.1.3m diameter, one patch of burnt stone in grey clay measuring 3.8m north-south and one large patch of grey clay measuring 7.1m north-west/south-east. To investigate these features, five small perpendicular trenches were added to Trench 12; 4 to the north aligned north-south, measuring between 2m and 5m long and one to the south aligned north-south measuring 3.5m long.
No further features or artefacts of archaeological significance were recorded during the excavation.
Archer Heritage Planning, 8 Beat Centre, Stephenstown, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.
