2025:122 - Rahin, Kildare

Licensed test excavations were undertaken in May 2025 at a proposed development site known as Rahan Church, a deconsecrated early 20th-century Church of Ireland structure at Rahin, Co. Kildare.

Three test trenches (T1-T3) extending for c.56m were opened across the accessible limits of the site. Topsoil was incrementally removed under archaeological supervision using an 8-tonne machine with a flat 1.5m-wide grading bucket. The three trenches were excavated across the footprint of the proposed residential extension and percolation area of the development. Recorded stratigraphy was very similar in all three trenches and revealed mid-brown topsoil that overlaid sterile yellow subsoil beneath.

Nothing of archaeological interest was discovered and no artefacts were recovered during testing.