County: Wicklow Site name: Ballynattin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 23E0864
Author: Jacinta Kiely
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 722939m, N 671673m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.782062, -6.177591
An archaeological impact assessment report was undertaken to fulfil a RFI from Wicklow Coounty Council in relation to a planning application to erect a commercial building at IDA Business Park. The site is located at the eastern end of the IDA Business Park in the townland of Ballynattin and the civil parish and barony of Arklow.
During the construction of the IDA Business Park in 2004 a total of ten areas of archaeological potential were investigated during the construction of internal roads and services infrastructure. These were excavated under licence 04E0712, revealing the remains of three Bronze Age structures, Bronze Age pits and spreads of Bronze Age material, a furnace (possibly also Bronze Age), a post-medieval hearth and post-medieval agricultural activity. An assemblage of forty-eight sherds of pottery was found during the excavation. Three rim sherds, six base-angle sherds, thirteen body sherds and twenty-six fragments were present, representing a minimum of eight Late Bronze Age coarse vessels (c. 1150-800 BC). The truncated remains of a burnt mound were recorded in the site (ARC Building Products) adjacent and to the west of the proposed development site.
A total of six trenches were excavated by machine in the area of the site, two trenches across the footprint of the manufacturing industrial unit, two across the area of the proposed cark park and two across the area of the proposed yard to the rear of the unit. The soil stratigraphy in the test trenches was complex due to the presence of a large dump of redeposited subsoil that had been spread across the site in recent years. It originated from the adjacent site (to the west) and was spread and levelled across the area of the proposed development site. It appears to be deepest in the central and eastern areas of the site. The presence of the redeposited subsoil was confirmed by the Plant Hire Contractor who had worked on the initial development of the IDA Business Park.
No archaeological stratigraphy, features or artefacts were recorded in any of the six test trenches excavated in the proposed development site. However, original ground was not recorded in Trenches 1-3 due to the presence of a deep layer of redeposited subsoil which was spread across the area of the site in recent years.
Eachtra Archaeological Projects, Lickybeg, Clashmore, Co Waterford
