Unearthing the story of Old Kilcullen

Today's residents of Old Kilcullen are living in a landscape where people have lived for thousands of years, and there's archaeological evidence of this where in other places such evidence is all gone, writes Brian Byrne.

That was the key takeaway from a presentation by Kildare's Heritage Officer Bridget Loughlin (above) at the recent Picnic on the Green organised by the Old Kilcullen Area Community Association, where she also said that there's a 'strong recommendation' that further surveys of the area be carried out.

She was speaking about the results of two recent archaeological investigations carried out on Old Kilcullen. The first was an airborne LIDAR survey in 2020 which included it as part of a larger investigation involving Dun Ailinne and The Curragh. The other was earlier this year, using magnetometry and resistivity techniques in the immediate field around the remains of the original ecclesiastical settlement.

"They found features that range over many periods of time," she told those present at the Picnic event. "They indicated that this is a landscape that was occupied and reoccupied over thousands of years, so it was a very active landscape."

She said the LIDAR survey had revealed two long topographical features which may have been remnants of the walls of the original town, while the on-ground surveys in April of this year found two previously-unknown sites under the ground which are indicative evidence of habitation. They include burning pits, boundary features, and burgage plots — long narrow garden areas which would have been fronted by houses on a street, a feature well established in Ireland from the 13th century. "We always knew that Old Kilcullen was a town, but the surveys tell us more about where the town actually was. We need further information, further surveys to establish what these features actually are and their importance."

Earlier she had outlined the known history of the area from its establishment as an ecclesiastical settlement in the fifth century by St Patrick, probably selected for its closeness to the ancient Royal Site of Dun Ailinne.

She noted the highlight events of Old Kilcullen — "it was the original Cill Chuilinn then" — including the Viking raids of the 10th century with contemporaneous reports of 'thousands' of slaves being taken, the beginnings of the Norman village there from the 12th century — "that's the piece that we're trying to establish now, where that village was" — and the start of the demise of Cill Chuilinn when the first bridge was built over the Liffey at Kilcullenbridge in 1319.

The Confederacy Wars of the 1640s resulted a lot of damage to the remains of the original ecclesiastical town, with further destruction from the Battle of Old Kilcullen in the 1798 Rebellion. "In the 19th century, Old Kilcullen lost its market licence, which was given to Kilcullenbridge," Bridget added, "but they did retain an annual fair, which may have been where we are having this gathering today."

On behalf of Kildare County Council and the community, she thanked the Corrigan family for allowing the archaeologists onto their land around the tower and graveyard. She emphasised that it is private land and nobody should enter it without their permission. "Hopefully in coming years we will be coming back with more information about Old Kilcullen," she promised.

Her presentation was followed with a talk by Dr Michael O'Connell, raised in Kilcullen, about his own concept model of Old Kilcullen in medieval times.

Thanking both contributors, chairman of the OKACA Christy Howard said 'this whole story is really only starting for our generation' and will be much more clear for the next generation.

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