Settlement deserted — medieval in Knockrobin,glebe (newcastle By., Wickow Rural Ed)

Testing under licence no. 02E0226 was undertaken in April 2002 in Glebe townland, Wicklow, as part of an assessment for a route-selection study for the proposed Wicklow Port Access Road. The route passes c. 55m from the protected area around an early ecclesiastical site (SMR 25:11). The assessment was in a large field, amalgamated from smaller land parcels after boundary removals in the last 170 years, that sloped steeply down to the south. Geophysics and the presence of low-relief landscape features on the hill slope south of the SMR protected area facilitated the selection of test-trench locations. Field inspection identified hand-dug lazy-bed cultivation ridges in the far western part of the field, well outside the route of the proposed road. They lay near an extensive (sand?) quarry that has cut away most of the centre of the hill that forms much of the field. An old trackway leading from this quarry to the present R750 road was visible as a hollow way stretching south from the quarry entrance. East of this a disused field boundary was visible as a bank with an infilled fosse on either side, oriented north-north-east/south-south-west up the main hill slope. Test-trenches were positioned on a level area farther east, on the southern slope of the field (Trench 3) and over a visible platform (Trench 1). Another trench (Trench 2) was excavated upslope to the north and east of this level area, on the opposite side of a trackway visible as an earthwork lynchet/causeway that extended north-east up and across the hill to the far corner of the field. The final trench (Trench 4) was south of the level hillside area and visible platform. Trenches 2 and 3 were opened using a mechanical excavator with a toothless bucket. Trench 4 was started by mechanical excavator and continued by hand. Trench 1, over visible earthworks, was excavated entirely by hand. The assessment identified archaeological deposits of probable medieval date in Trenches 1 and 3, including a pit, ditches and a charcoal-flecked spread that yielded pottery and bone. A number of unstratified, prehistoric topsoil finds may indicate prehistoric activity in the vicinity, near the hilltop to the north, outside the route of the proposed road. Also, the assessment indicated the probable eastern and southern extents of the main (medieval) archaeological deposits. A second geophysical survey has confirmed these. Mid- to late 18th-century activity in the assessment field is especially well represented, by scattered finds recovered during test excavation from the topsoil, 0.35–0.7m deep. A north–south-oriented ditch in Trench 1 appeared to have been open (or recut?) during that time, although it may originally have been a medieval feature. A reasonable, though tentative, supposition is that such finds are the result of more intensive farming activity at the time (manuring etc.) and that late ploughmarks unearthed in Trench 2 date from this era, as perhaps does the (later) trackway that leads from the centre of the testing area to the north-east corner of the field. An extensive 1960s/1970s water management programme was encountered in the form of 4-inch (105mm) ceramic field drains in Trenches 3 and 4. Waterlogged deposits in the ditch in Trench 1 also indicate an earlier concern with water management, as does the placename ‘the mote field’, a probable reference to the ditch in Trench 1. On the basis of the above evidence, alterations to the route of the proposed road were recommended to mitigate the impact on the archaeology present and to increase the existing 55m buffer between the route and the edge of the SMR site. An environmental impact assessment (archaeology) is now under way on the preferred Port Access Road route option (Bennett 2004, 542-3). Date of upload: 22 October 2012