KILDARE REVIEW 2018: Archaeologists uncover Kildare’s first stud farm

Archaeologists working on a site at Mullamast, south of Kilcullen discovered the remains of a medieval village — and significant evidence that it was a centre of horse breeding, making it the oldest known stud farm in the county.

The excavation was conducted in advance of the construction of the M9 motorway in 2007.

In early December, Transport Infrastructure Ireland and Kildare County Council launched a book of the findings of the archaeologists, called Colonising a Royal Landscape — the History and Archaeology of a Medieval Village at Mullamast.

The excavations covered 2.3 hectares,  estimated to be only 10% of the overall area of the village.

It is the largest excavation at a deserted medieval village site to date in Ireland. 

Approximately 90% of the village remains relatively undiscovered on either side of the motorway, so it is undoubtedly a subject for future archaeological study.

The village is described as an Anglo-Norman village at Mullamast, close to Ballitore village.

Knowledge of the village had been documented in historical sources, but its precise location was not known.

Geophysical surveys and archaeological test excavations had identified the potential location, before excavation.

The distinguishing feature of the settlement was the unusually high proportion of small horses remains, corresponding in stature to a hobby, which is a small, agile horse, prized and bred for raiding and scouting in times of war, and the specialist light cavalry called hobelars, who rode them.

They were bred, trained and exported from Ireland for use in military campaigns abroad.

The village of Mullamast may well be the first stud farm in the long history of horse breeding in Kildare and a place where the villagers specialised in horses bred for warfare.

The village was possibly founded by Walter de Ridlesford, a grandson-in-law of King Henry I.

Its location may have been deliberately chosen, as it lies in the shadow of the ridge of Mullamast, capped by the Royal fort of Maistiu.

A pillar stone from Mullamast is now housed in the National Museum of Ireland and bears very fine sixth-century decoration.

A silver penny of King Edward 1, minted in Canterbury between 1294 and 1299 was found

And most unusually, a fourth-century AD Roman coin, possibly of Constantine the Great, was found in the foundations of a building, perhaps inserted there for good luck by a returning pilgrim.  

Mullamast flourished in the 13th and 14th centuries. Like other settlements, its decline probably resulted from a combination of factors, such as climate deterioration, geography, the Bruce Invasion in 1315, the Black Death and a resurgence of the native Irish.