2024:755 - Swords Cultural and Civic Centre, Site 2, and Former St Michael's House site, Seatown Road, Swords, Dublin

Site 2

Three medieval pits and a medieval layer were exposed at Site 2 beneath the foundations of the 18th–19th-century buildings. As the excavation proceeded, the works at Seatown Road Site 2 uncovered a series of stone-lined wells of medieval date (13^th-14^th century). This chronology is supported by artefact date ranges as well as radiocarbon dates. One of these had a flight of steps descending into it, two wells were connected by an earth-cut sluice and two further wells contained the remnants of stone-lining. These wells were clustered to the immediate east of a contemporary medieval field-boundary ditch which extended north–south through the centre of the site. A fourth post-medieval well was identified at the western limit of Site 2. The wells were of a very similar date range and construction to two wells identified during excavations immediately west of the former St Michael’s site (Whitaker 2024) and to the east at ‘Site 1’ (La Fratta, 2024). Through consultation with the client and design team, it was possible to propose preservation in situ for all of the wells beneath the permitted development through the use of concrete slabs to span the structures. This was proposed, via a revised Method Statement and agreed with the National Monuments Service.

St Michael’s House

Testing of the features identified at the site of the former St Michael’s House revealed three phases of medieval garden soils, several contemporary linear features and one pit. The archaeological assessment recommended archaeological excavation of all features identified and a revised method statement was issued to, and approved by, the National Monuments Service. Works at St Micheal’s House uncovered a series of broadly contemporary intercutting medieval field boundaries (13^th-14^th century) which enclosed a high density of large, shallow medieval pits, agricultural furrows and a single stone structure (recorded tentatively as a limekiln). This chronology is supported by artefact date ranges as well as radiocarbon dates. These field systems were cut into early medieval sand deposits, relict topsoils and ploughsoils, and were sealed by a disturbed late medieval levelling layer which partially survived beneath the construction cut for the modern structure which previously occupied the south-easternmost limit of the site.