Excavations at Downshill, Co. Wicklow

Dr. John Ó NéillUCD School of Archaeology

Supported by funding from the Royal Irish Academy and Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government

Downshill

Downshill: Wicklow Inventory• ‘Subcircular univallate hillfort. The dimensions are c. 360

m from East to West, and c. 220 m from North to South. Part of the site is depicted on the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map as a field boundary. The site encloses the summit of Downshill with steep slopes to the North, East and South and gentler slopes to the West and has a commanding position on the Western edge of the Glen of the Downs. The summit is now covered in forestry and the only accessible surviving part of the rampart is along the south-west side where it forms part of a field boundary which skirts the plantation. The earth and stone bank (Width 4 m, Height 1.60 m) has near vertical drystone facing (probably not original). The external fosse (Width 4 m) was also identified to the south-east in the next field in 1989 during ploughing. The south-east perimeter had apparently not survived’

Downshill

• Depicted as incomplete earthwork on 1887-1913 OS map

Downshill

• Not indicated on 1834-1842 edition of OS map

Downshill: overlay of OS mapping

• Arguably – the hillfort is depicted by omission.

Map shows the 1834-

1842 edition in red with an overlay of the

1887-1913 edition.

Downshill• Site was converted to

forestry in the late 1950s.

• Planting was intensive with softwoods planted at intervals of 1-2 m on planting ridges which sometimes cut across the line of the earthwork.

• Tree felling took place in 2003 and was monitored by Claire Cotter – no further damage appears to have been done.

Downshill from the air… • The earthwork is clearly visible on satellite image available through Google Earth (extending from the curving field boundary in bottom left of image).

• The extent of tree damage is also clear!!

Downshill• This is the level of

preservation along parts of the earthwork (the tree stump up the centre rest on the bank).

• The direction of the photo is shown below.

• Trench 2 was located along this section.

Downshill

• More often, the line of the earthwork is almost totally obscured by the tree planting.

• The direction of the photo is shown on the top left.• The position of the earthwork in the photo is shown on the

bottom left (for viewers who don’t believe in the ‘eye of faith’).

Downshill: initial re-survey of earthwork

• Main problem with surviving condition is that it is near impossible to identify the location of an entrance with any certainty – there are no obvious candidates.

Downshill – trench locations

• Two trenches were opened in locations where there seemed to be a better level of preservation.

Trench 1

• Trench 1 revealed that the earthwork was formed of a clay and sod bank up to 2 m wide and surviving to a height of 0.50 m with a shallow ditch on the downslope side.

Trench 1, bank and ditch

• The ditch was a narrow trench inserted into the base of a shallower cut that accentuated the profile of the slope – the bottom of the image on the right shows how this deeper base was not continuous.

Trench 2

• In Trench 2 the earthwork had a similar morphology to that in Trench 1.

Trench 2, bank and ditch

• The ditch was even shallower than in Trench 1, with no clear evidence of the deeper section (although there was more tree root disturbance in Trench 2).

Dating evidence??• There was no artefactual material to

indicate the date of the earthwork. • Samples recovered from the base of the

ditch contain charcoal and should provide suitable samples for radiocarbon dating to give a terminus ante quem for the construction of the ditch.

• The only finds were .303 cartridge blanks from 2 pits cut into modern soils in Trench 1 (datable by identifying the headstamps on the base). They date to 1907-08 and may relate to some possible ‘dugouts’ that are present across the south-western corner of the site.

Plan showing location of pits containing .303 blank cartridges.

Downshill: Is it a hillfort?

• As a univallate hillfort, Downshill is only surpassed in size by 4 of the 43 recorded examples.

• It provides a superb panoramic view stretching from Louth down to south Wicklow and inland towards the Wicklow and Dublin Mountains.

• It fulfills the criteria for a hillfort as much as other sites.

• The surviving earthwork at Downshill (assuming it does date to the Late Bronze Age) is relatively slight, if we are to see such sites as defensive.

Downshill: Is it a hillfort?

• Strategy is much more suggestive of social coherency – with some form of centralised authority providing the re-assurance of a considered policy. Perhaps the function of Downshill is as a visible symbol of a planned strategy to combat the threat (real or otherwise) of modile warfare, thus promoting stability.

• The significant views afforded by Downshill may hint at its role.

• Military theorists distinguish between ‘strategy’ – the overall and long term aim, and, ‘tactics’ – the immediate method employed to achieve that aim.

• If Downshill had a defensive role it was strategic rather than tactical.

Downshill: Remaining work

• The extent of disturbance at Downshill does not suggest that there might be any tangible benefit gained from future excavation-based research.

• From the 2007 investigation, the remaining work is in completing processing of samples, identifying suitable dating materials, applying for permissions from NMI, and, obtaining radiocarbon dates.

• Complete further research on origin of early 20th century blanks.

• Once completed, the site can then be brought to publication.