2023:822 - MetroLink Utility Slit Trenches: Licence Area 2, Balheary Demesne etc., Dublin

Archaeological works in Licence Area 2 of the proposed Metrolink project comprised monitoring of twenty utility slit trenches, spanning a distance of c.16km, in the townlands of Balcurris, Balheary Demense, Ballymun, Barrysparks, Commons East, Crowscastle, Miltonsfields, Newtown, Nevinstown West, Santry Demesne, Seatown West, Siloge Green, Stormanstown, Swords Demesne, Wad and Walnut Grove, Fingal, Co. Dublin.

The twenty trenches were selected for monitoring from a larger number of utility slit trenches in the area on a case-by-case basis; some trenches were in the proximity of an area of archaeological potential, a townland boundary, site of a structure or a bridge site. The trenches subjected to archaeological monitoring were SC01-ST12, SC01-ST17, MS03-ST01, MS03-ST03, MS03-ST08, MS03-ST09, MS03-ST11, MS04-ST01, SC04-ST02, SC04-ST03, SC04-ST05, SC06-ST09, SC06-ST10, MS07-ST01, MS08-ST01, MS08-ST02, MS08-ST03, MSO9-ST03, MS09-ST07 and SC06-ST08.

No archaeological remains were uncovered during the monitoring works, however, the archaeological monitoring and excavation revealed historical material in two trenches. In trench (SC06-ST09), located on old Ballymun Road, a compact stone layer comprising angular and rounded limestones with an average size of 80mm x 50mm x 30mm, set within a light brown silty clay, was revealed. This seemed to represent a metalled surface, 12m in length by 0.6m in width by 0.15–0.2m in depth, and may be the old road depicted on the first-edition OS six-inch map (1843).

In trench (SC06-ST10), dark mottled gritty silty clay with red brick fragments and crushed mortar 8.5m in length by 0.6m in width and 0.3m in depth was uncovered, possibly representing material from a collapsed and levelled wall of nineteenth-century date.

No additional groundworks are required at this stage of the service location programme.