A Little about "Cherrywood Co. Dublin"

Since Cherrywood was named after the place Andrew McCreight came from in Ireland in 1835, I thought it would be interesting to find some information about Cherrywood Co. Dublin. Unfortunatley there was little information available that I could find. All I was not able to come up with was the following article about a Norse settlement being found there, and being excavated.

Excavation of rural Norse settlement at Cherrywood, Co. Dublin

Introduction
A number of areas were excavated during the earthmoving phase of the Science and Technology Park development at Cherrywood, Co. Dublin. The project is ongoing, but so far the excavations have uncovered several fulachta fiadh, a late prehistoric/Iron Age ring barrow, a Bronze Age house and a Bronze Age cremation cemetery, as well as some medieval features and the remains of the Loughlinstown Military Camp (1791–99).
However, the largest site (Site 18) that has been excavated at Cherrywood so far is a late prehistoric/Iron Age burial enclosure that was subsequently reused by Norse settlers.

Site 18
All of the features on Site 18 were identified within a 43 m diameter enclosure, built to the west of a Bronze Age cremation cemetery (Site 19). The enclosure was marked by a ditch and, possibly, an outer bank constructed in the later prehistoric period. There was no entrance, but the ditch at the northeastern side was very shallow.

The Ditch of the Enclosure at Site 18
A number of cremated human bone deposits were found in the ditch on the eastern side of the site; some small fragments of bronze and glass beads were recovered from these burials. Burials of cremated bone in the western part of the ditch did not contain finds, and two were placed on stone settings. Two pits were also inserted into the silted-up ditch fill and covered over with a large boulder. Although only one cremation, in the centre of the site, was found intact, the presence of fragments of burnt human bone in the grave fills of the later inhumation cemetery probably derive from cremation burials disturbed during the later interments. A small quantity of struck flint, including a thumb-nail scraper, was recovered from the site. Some blue glass beads, a bronze fragment, a bone pin and an iron pin from separate deposits of burnt bone suggested that the burials date to the Iron Age. It is unclear whether any of the post holes in the centre of the site should be associated with this phase.

The Inhumation Cemetery
In the sixth or seventh century AD, the interior of the enclosure was reused as an inhumation cemetery. Thirty-eight burials were recovered. Adult male, female and child burials were placed in earth-dug graves oriented roughly east-west, with the head to the west; in some 76% of cases, the head was protected by 'ear muff' stones. Two buckles and some other iron fragments suggested that some burials were clothed. An iron spade shoe was uncovered from one of the grave fills.

Early Occupation Phase
Two structures were built at the southern end of the site during the early use of the cemetery, although one isolated burial lay between the two. The eastern structure appears to be some form of keyhole-shaped drying kiln. The western structure (Structure 4) was described by an oval setting of post holes containing a sunken area. A bone pin/needle was recovered from the sunken area. A single sherd of B ware and a lignite bracelet found in topsoil may also date to this phase.

The Norse Settlement
At some point in the seventh or eighth century, the cemetery passed out of use. In the late ninth century, Norse settlers constructed a long house on the site. The rubbish from the demolition of this long house was deposited in a pit on the site and contained a large amount of animal bone and artefacts, including a whale bone plaque, generally associated with Norse women, and other typical Norse finds. The people who inhabited the site at this date left evidence for metal working, textile production and pastoral and arable agriculture.

The Hiberno-Norse Settlement
When the long house was deliberately demolished it was replaced by two structures. The path linking the two structures survived in one place as a narrow cobbled area. The northern structure was similar to Type 1 houses from urban levels in Dublin and appears to have been rebuilt in situ a number of times. The entranceway was marked by a small cobbled area, and a ringed pin and bone comb were uncovered from this structure. The second structure was rectangular and had an entrance to the south.

A number of Norse artefacts, including an amber bead, an eleventh/twelfth-century bone comb and a number of ferrous artefacts that were paralleled in more secure Norse features, were recovered from the fill of the ditch. A three-pronged object and a number of knives were among the iron objects recovered from the ditch. The ditch appears to have been deliberately backfilled for an entranceway during the later Norse phase, and some Dublin-type cooking ware was recovered, as were other sherds of Dublin-type wares. Similar pottery was recovered from the base of a drying kiln to the northeast of Site 18. This also included part of a mill stone and pivot stone from a horizontal mill. Early Irish Law tracts indicate that a certain level of noble, known as an ócaire had to have a share in a kiln, a granary and a mill. As kilns were too unsafe to locate within ringforts, they were located on communal property, such as a local cemetery. This appears to be the case at Cherrywood.