Metalworking site

The National Monuments Service's description

Archaeological excavation was undertaken by Yvonne Whitty at Rathcoran House (St Joseph's Convent), Baltinglass, County Wicklow within the constraint area for Baltinglass Historic Town (WI027-024----) in December 2018 under licence No. 18E0686. The excavation results were described by Whitty (2021, 22-3) as follows; 'Archaeological Area 2 comprised a large shallow pit was located at the southeast extent of the development in Trenches 1 and 8. This isolated feature C23, comprises a large sub rectangular pit which was northeast to southwest aligned measuring 3.9m in length, 2.2m in width and was 0.40m in depth (Figure 18- Figure 20, Plate 11 and Plate 12). It contained five fills C24-C28. The primary fill C24 a black sandy silt contained slag which consisted exclusively of partial and complete smithing hearth cakes with weights of single examples ranging from 262g to 1386g (Rondolez, Appendix 7 Metalworking Report). Also contained within C23 where several fragments of clay tuyeres were recovered (18E0686:231-8). The largest piece (266g) consisted of the lower part of a vitrified tuyere front and showed that the original tuyere was truncated cone-shaped with a flat front which had a ‘slag beard’ attached to it. Other pieces represent heat-affected tuyere wall fragments. The primary fill was overlain with a redeposited natural C25, followed by smithing debris material C26 a layer of redeposited natural C27 sealed this layer and the uppermost natural siltation layer C28 accumulated after the pit was abandoned.' The metal analysis completed by Rondolez indicates that this assemblage represents the waste of secondary blacksmithing, likely the production of large iron objects or substantial quantities of smaller ones. This activity took place outside of the area of excavation and was dumped into the pit C23. The date of the assemblage is most likely of either early or late medieval in date'.

Compiled by: Caimin O’Brien based on details provided by Yvonne Whitty

Date of upload: 5 May 2021

References

Whitty, Y. 2021 Final Report Baltinglass East Licence 18E0686, Baltinglass East, Co. Wicklow. Unpublished report submitted to the National Monuments Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Dublin.