2024:706 - Ward River Regional Park, Brackenstown, Swords, Dublin

Fingal County Council are in the process of carrying out a number of upgrading works throughout Ward River Regional Park. A number of these works took place in 2024 and required archaeological investigation.

Brackenstown walled gardens

Part of the works were focussed on a former walled garden and farmyard associated with Brackenstown House, which the council have recently purchased. The council aim to bring the gardens into the public realm and renovate the gardens and structures. An early eighteenth-century cistern house forms part of the complex, which was associated with Robert Molesworth’s extensive gardens at Brackenstown. The walled gardens were subsequently laid out in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, with the farmyard added to over the following century.

In advance of the works a programme of archaeological geophysics was carried out (23R0522) followed by the excavation of 24 test trenches in early 2024. These were opened across three spaces in the vicinity of the gardens: the smaller formal walled garden, the larger garden to the south, and a large open field to the north. In the northern field the earliest potential feature uncovered was a metalworking furnace measuring 0.4m by 0.32m. While undated at present, these can date to the Iron Age and up to the medieval period. At the eastern end of the field the remains of a masonry wall and a metalled yard were uncovered that may relate to the boundary wall of the original seventeenth-century Brackenstown House. The wall was 0.84m in width, survived to a height of 0.22m and was a minimum of 4.8m in length. The associated metalled surface was a minimum of 10.3m in length and 1.85m in width.

Preservation of garden features was better in the small walled garden as the larger garden had been used for spoil storage in the recent past, which resulted in the disturbance of underlying garden features. A large volume of imported topsoil was identified in the field to the north, 0.5-0.8m in depth.

The testing identified a number of structures and paths within the walled garden and the southern garden. Many of these are depicted on the historic mapping. Two structures were present in the smaller walled garden, a greenhouse and a tiled patio, likely to be the base of a lightly roofed pavilion. Lean-to structures were also identified against the south-facing wall of the larger garden to the south, likely to have been glasshouses. A concrete-built tank was identified within the smaller garden, while a brick-built sub-surface structure was identified in the southern garden. This was depicted on 19^th-century maps and may represent a sunken pit house, a type of greenhouse. It was clearly later used as a water tank as a number of pipes were associated with it and it is also possible this was its original function. Many garden features such as furrows, planting rows and drainage features were also identified along with slate-lined shallow plant bowls. A former flower bed was identified adjacent to one of the former greenhouses.

No evidence for the seventeenth-century entrance avenue to the north depicted on Rocque’s 1760 map was identified. The early eighteenth-century wooden pipes that brought water from a tuckmill to the north on the river to the cistern house adjacent to the walled garden referred to in historic sources were also not present. It appears these were reclaimed after the tuckmill and its replacement water engine went out of use.

Brackenstown mill and gasworks

A programme of archaeological monitoring was undertaken on the site of Brackenstown mill along the northern side of the Ward River in March 2024. The works were undertaken to assess the impact the construction of a modern building, Mill House, had on the remains of the mill. A large part of the mill had been removed prior to the construction of the modern building, with the remaining above-ground elements demolished when it was decided that the modern building was to be removed. The initial works related to the construction of a fish bypass on the northern side of the river designed to allow fish to bypass an early eighteenth-century cascade structure associated with Molesworth’s gardens.

The investigations identified that limestone foundations of the mill building survive along with some internal floor surfaces. A number of concrete surfaces and column bases associated with the modern building were also identified. The brick arch of the culvert over the millrace was also identified and is intact for a minimum of 10m, stretching from the eastern side of the bridge east of the mill into the mill building. The western end of the millrace was not identified during the works. The eastern end of the culverted portion of the millrace was identified built into the façade of the bridge. A large deposit of demolition rubble, presumably related to the demolition of the mill and the later modern structure, was identified to the east of the bridge, largely filling in a section of the millrace.

Monitoring of trial holes in the vicinity of the former estate gasworks to the southeast of the mill was also undertaken. These works were conducted prior to the creation of a temporary channel required to carry out maintenance to a number of historic structures along the river including the cascades. No additional structures relating to the gasworks were identified, however waste deposits likely to relate to the gasholder were uncovered to the south and southeast of the feature. These deposits were chemically assessed and were not found to be hazardous. The temporary channel was subsequently excavated with no additional features being revealed.

Eastern park

A programme of archaeological test-trenching was undertaken in October 2024 in the eastern portion of Ward River Regional Park in advance of proposed upgrading works within the park. The testing assessed an early eighteenth-century ornamental canal feature (DU-011-030—) associated with Brackenstown House, identifying its original profile and depth. The testing confirmed the below-ground survival of a millrace on the northern side of the river in Windmill Lands townland associated with a seventeenth-century mill, as well as the continuation of medieval midden deposits on the southern side of the river in the same townland. The midden deposits were associated with burials (DU011-090—) further to the north at the river bank. No burials were encountered within the trench, though other cut features were noted.

The testing identified a number of previously unknown archaeological features, including a pair of cremation pits, a possible kiln and a burnt spread in the flood plain to the north of the river. A number of spreads of charcoal-rich material were identified on either side of the river to the east, which may be related to the medieval midden deposits, or relate to earlier activity.