2025:274 - Brockagh, Glendalough, Wicklow

Excavations were undertaken by UCD School of Archaeology from 9 June to 4 July 2025, in Brockagh Townland, Glendalough, 480m to the east of the main monastic complex on privately owned pasture to the south of Trinity Church (WI023-014001; part of National Monument No. 134). The excavations comprised of two weeks excavating with UCD students registered on the Archaeological Field Skills module (ARCH10180) followed by two weeks excavating with Community Volunteers on behalf of Glendalough Heritage Forum.

The 2025 excavation season also involved a collaboration with the Discovery Programme training UCD students in photogrammetric modelling techniques at ‘The Seven Fonts’, a group of bullaun stones situated to the north of the main monastic site. They also conducted a drone survey to establish a Digital Terrain Model of the area, and carried out a new geophysical survey (magnetometry and resistivity) of the area immediately surrounding the excavation.

The excavations focused on a range of geophysical anomalies originally identified by geophysical survey in 2014 (Curran 2015) and resurveyed this year. The original survey identified a long linear feature on flat ground to the south of Trinity Church, running roughly northwest to southeast, reflecting the orientation of the Church. This feature appeared as a faint response on the resistivity survey with areas of higher intensity at several points along its course. Repeat survey identified anomalies interpreted as a range of possible pits, post-holes and unclassified features.

Two trenches were laid out to investigate these anomalies. Trench 1 was a 10m by 10m square divided into four smaller 5m by 5m quadrants designated A, B, C, and D. Two opposing quadrants, one to the north-west (Tr.1A) and one to the south-east (Tr.1D), were opened and partially excavated.

Trench 2 was a linear trench measuring 30m long by 3m wide aligned north-northeast to south-southwest, running down the sloping ground south of the boundary wall of Trinity Church. This trench was divided into six 5m by 3m Grids designated A, B, C, D, E, and F with Grid A to the north and Grid F to the south. This trench was positioned to investigate a portion of the east-west linear feature and also some of the unclassified anomalies on the sloping ground close to Trinity church. In this trench grids B, E and F were opened and partially excavated (Tr.2B, Tr.2E, Tr.2F).

Trench 1
The excavations in Trench 1 uncovered two low stone-built structures aligned northwest to southeast, corresponding to the linear anomaly seen in the resistivity survey.
Structure A comprised of an irregular deposit of schist and granite stone rubble bounded between two wall façades, one to the north and one to the south. The northern wall façade was better preserved and survived as two courses of dry stone walling c. 0.25m high. The southern façade was poorly preserved and made of a single course of granite and schist stones. Several larger schist slabs were uncovered along the line of the northern wall façade and may have been dislodged from the top of this structure. The portion of the structure uncovered in the trench was 1.5m wide and 5.5m long, but clearly continued to both the east and west outside of the excavated area and can be seen on the geophysical survey.
Structure A was built directly on top of a deposit of grey charcoal-flecked silty soil which produced finds of medieval pottery including locally made Leinster cooking ware and imported French Saintonge sherds. Further deposits abutting the wall structure also contained medieval pottery. The grey deposit overlay two shallow parallel ditches, one to the north and one to the south of Structure A. These ditches were cut into natural subsoil and ran on the same northwest-southeast alignment as the stone structure.
To the north of this structure was a second linear feature on the same alignment, Structure B, and again composed of a band of loose stone rubble 1.5m wide and 6m long running across Grid D and into Grid A. These stones appear to have been deposited into a linear cut, which was not fully excavated, but seems to have been cut through the deposit of grey charcoal-flecked soil. This linear cut could be seen continuing at the western edge of Grid A, but here the large stone rubble deposit was absent and the cut was filled with several charcoal-flecked grey silty soil deposits. It is likely that this cut feature continued further eastwards beyond the excavation area but was not visible on the geophysical survey.

Trench 2
In Trench 2 three grid squares were opened, Grid A at the northern end and contiguous Grids E and F at the southern end. In Grid A, a small area of charcoal-rich soil and in-situ burning was uncovered which was excavated and sampled. Grid E was largely sterile with the exception of several ephemeral features and some deposits in the north-east corner which were not excavated.
In Grid F excavations uncovered the continuation of the linear stone feature seen in Trench 1 which corresponded to the linear anomaly seen in the geophysical survey. Here the structure was more compact comprising a band of cobble-sized stones 1.15m wide and 3m across the width of the trench with a setting of larger stones immediately to the south. At the southern end of Grid F, the edge of a cut feature was uncovered but only partly excavated due to time constraints. It may be a continuation of the ditch cut seen in Trench 1A.

Finds from the excavations included nails and other iron objects of all periods, post-medieval glass and ceramics, slate pencils, and clay pipe fragments as well as imported and locally-made medieval pottery and one possible medieval lead-alloy weight. A small number of worked prehistoric lithics were also found.

Discussion
The purpose of the linear features is uncertain, the best preserved portion has the appearance of a heavily damaged wall. It may have once formed part of an enclosing element to the curtilage of Trinity Church, but its original proportions and extent are unknown. Structure A overlies a pair of earlier parallel ditches the full extent of which are also unknown. The features appear to have several phases on roughly the same alignment and may have undergone periods of remodelling and rebuilding over time.
The excavations combined with the geophysical survey have demonstrated that there are previously unknown medieval structures and related archaeological deposits on the floodplain south of Trinity Church. It is very likely that further archaeological remains are present across a wider area outside the survey parameters. The medieval pottery sherds recovered are of a type consistent with those found on previous UCD excavations at Glendalough and broadly date from the 12th to 14th centuries corresponding with the high point in the life of the monastic site. The nature of the medieval structures and deposits in this area is unclear, further excavations could greatly enhance our understanding of this activity.

Curran, S. (2015). Geophysical Survey at Glendalough, Co. Wicklow (14E0100). Report, UCD School of Archaeology.