We are 20 years old this week and what a journey it has been!
Our journey can be best compared to a rollercoaster ride.   The enthusiasm of being a start-up in 2000 soon led to the highs of massive growth during the Celtic Tiger years, only to be followed by the lows of the deep recession which followed it. We spent a tough few years building our offering in the UK through the ups and downs of the Brexit years and finally, just to add to the adrenaline rush, a pandemic to keep us on our toes!
Rubicon was born in Edinburgh one November night in 2000 over a few beers between Colm Moloney and Jerry O’Sullivan.  At the time Jerry was a freelance archaeologist and Colm was a Director of Headland Archaeology.  Headland was one of the larger archaeological companies based in Scotland.  Both proud Cork men, the decision (after a few scoops) was to return to the Rebel county and get stuck into some archaeology on the many road developments taking place across the country.  In the cold light of day, a business proposal was prepared and presented to the Board of Headland Archaeology Ltd and it was agreed that an Irish subsidiary should be set up.  The new subsidiary was initially called Headland Archaeology (Ireland) Ltd and was eventually rebranded as Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd.  Jerry moved on to the NRA before the company started trading while Colm, supported by the board of Headland, headed back to his hometown of Midleton in Co. Cork and started developing the new business.  The rest, as they say, is archaeology!

Over the last two decades the company has grown to be a dominant presence in the commercial archaeology sector in Ireland and, more recently, in the UK. We pride ourselves in constant innovation to improve our offering. Our tag line Managing Risk, Delivering Quality has never been more relevant, and we are constantly pushing the boundaries of what we can provide for our clients.
The company is led by an energetic and experienced board of directors who have been with the company for many years and steered Rubicon through both highs and lows. Here are their stories:

​Little did I realise when I took a 3-week site assistant job to dig a burnt mound during the wet December of 2003- that it would be the start of a journey that has led to me becoming MD of the company 17 years later! After those initial 3 weeks I was thrilled to be offered a 6-month contract with the company, and from that point I was given amazing opportunities to gain experience and develop my skills. Soon I became a permanent member of staff and went on to become licence eligible in 2006. I was fortunate to spend some fantastic years on road schemes around the country during the Celtic Tiger years, where we encountered plenty of archaeology and had a hard-working but fun-loving team of people on board. During this period, I did a stint as post-excavation manager with the company and also began to take on more complex project management roles. I am very grateful that that the senior managers within the company mentored me along the way.
Sadly, as the boom years came to an end, I had to say goodbye to many colleagues- many of whom left archaeology for good. But I was one of the few who went on to cling to what remained of the industry. I was, by this stage, a senior project manager with the task of completing big projects on the tightest of budgets. It was tough going but I was supported by the other remaining long-serving employees and somehow, we managed to pull through. My efforts were rewarded by an appointment to the Board of Directors of Rubicon in 2012, and with the fact that we were able to keep the doors open for myself and others who were reliant on Rubicon for our livelihoods.
The road out the other side of the recession has been a bumpy one! With no stability in the level of work we could secure in Ireland we turned our attentions to the UK. I spent 2013 in Wales and enjoyed getting to know the industry on the other side of the water. It has been satisfying to see our operation grow steadily in the UK since then. When Red River Archaeology Group formed to improve our offering in the UK, I became a director of the that company also. 
The past year has seen one of the biggest challenges of my career to date as I have been deeply involved in our work on the HS2 project in the UK and in navigating our way through working during a pandemic.
I was honoured to be appointed as Managing Director of Rubicon and Vice CEO of the Red River Group in 2019 and to be in that position as Rubicon celebrates its 20-year anniversary, and I look forward to many more successful years to come. 

​My first encounter with this Cork mob was when I was working for the engineers on the N6 Galway to Ballinasloe Scheme way back in 2005. These were the days before ‘Google Translate’ and I must admit there were moments in a couple of meetings where I had to guess the correct response (yes/no/maybe/let me get back to you on that). The following year I was lucky enough to become licence eligible and, in the summer, started my first project (N7 Limerick to Nenagh) with the then Headland Archaeology (Ireland). By the end of the year I was fully fluent in ‘Cork’ and was even starting to insert ‘like’ at the end of each sentence….like.
The subsequent years were filled with more road schemes and with the support and mentoring of the senior management and admin team I progressed from Site Manager to Project Manager on a number of these projects. These were the busy years and we set about expanding the business by opening offices in Dublin and Galway with dedicated and highly professional teams in each location. That was all before the Celtic Tiger bubble blew up in our collective faces. As a result we had to close the Galway office and make a large number of staff redundant across the company- personally I struggled with this and it’s an aspect of senior management I don’t think I’ll ever get used to.
From this point we were a very much a leaner company with the remaining staff taking on multiple different roles to enable us to keep the doors open. I shifted further away from Project Management and focused more on sales, a role that I continue in still. Due to the diminished market in Ireland we turned more to the UK for opportunities with some notable successes in South Wales. It appeared at the time that this was the most viable option to keep the business going but then David Cameron threw in his Brexit grenade. Again, collective sleaves were rolled up across the company and everyone contributed to keep the business going.
Thankfully, we have moved on from these dark days and the outlook is certainly more positive. We restructured the company and included a UK subsidiary ‘Red River Archaeology’ which is growing under the expert direction of its board of management. I have been privileged to serve on the Rubicon Heritage board and more recently the Group board of management, a position which I certainly didn’t envisage myself being in back in 2006.
Over the last 14 years since joining the company there have been a load of miles, a load of early mornings, a load of late nights, a load of sore heads and a load of breakfast rolls. It certainly has been a rollercoaster and I must pay respect to all our current and past staff whose hard work, diligence and professionalism have enabled the company to maintain its success. Roll on the next 20 years but I might need to swap to veggie rolls! 

​I started my career as a General Operative at Millipore Ireland BV.  I was soon promoted to Team Lead and then Production Shift Supervisor.  I gained lots of supervisory/management experience while working across those roles and this stood to me for many years to come.  I followed that with a period of self-employment and then moved into a Counter Manager position with a luxury cosmetics brand in Brown Thomas, Cork.   The sales turnover on that account was high and was being challenged by an explosion of new, fashionable, trendy, media bolstered cosmetics houses such as MAC, Bobbi Brown, Laura Mercier and more.  Celebrity endorsements became essential marketing requirements and keeping an eye to media and trends became a huge part of the business.  This signalled the beginning of the PR and social media storm that is now the backbone of every company’s marketing strategy.  I’m not sure I would have understood back then how Archaeology might be sold in that way but like every other product or service, its needs its stage and spotlight moments!   
Following my time at Brown Thomas, I moved on from working with selling luxury brands to selling a luxury service.  The Celtic Tiger was in its adolescence and luxury and decadence were king.  I worked at a 5 star Spa with a large team and I experienced queues and waiting lists I’d never seen the likes of before.  I loved the buzz and hype of it all but with a large family in the balance and newspaper columns bulging with job opportunities, I decided to try and move away from weekend and evening working.  It was there that my journey started in commercial archaeology. 
I spotted a newspaper advert for an Administration Assistant position (Monday to Friday) and decided to gamble on an application.  I hadn’t worked in an administration role per se but there had been massive administrative requirements in all the roles I’d worked at to date.  I was very pleased and maybe a bit shocked to be offered the position.  The learning curve was not gentle, there were times that I felt like I was climbing Everest but I absolutely loved the many daily (sometimes hourly!!) challenges.  The equivalent of the queues and waiting lists at the Spa was happening in Archaeology, except it was roads waiting to be built.   It was manic ……. every week we were growing staff numbers tenfold.  We had wonderful teams of archaeologists from all across the world working on multiple sites around Ireland.  My role developed a strong HR slant and I soon became responsible for the HR function of the business and ultimately the entire Business Support department.
Part of the administration function of my job led me to taking minutes at Board Meetings.  It was always more than just a minute taking exercise for me, I loved learning about the commercial archaeology sector through the management prism.   One of the most complimentary things I can say about Rubicon’s Board of Management is that I was never treated as just a minute taker.  I was always spoken to as though I was member of the Board, while I was in the Board Room.  My opinions were often sought, and I admired the collaborative nature of communications across all tiers of the business.   
 
I have attended a huge number of Board Meetings since starting work at Rubicon.  The workings of the Board, when I look back over the years, were sometimes as exciting as watching a soap opera.  There has been hilarity, sadness, puzzlement, frustration, suspense and fear in bucket loads but the outstanding vibe to me has been one of high energy.   I have never met any other group of people who are as determined to innovate, reshape and resolve issues until there is no option left but to succeed.  
In light of that, I am extremely happy to be a Company Director at Rubicon Heritage Services as it reaches it’s 20-year anniversary.   The temptation is there to say ‘how in the name of all that is holy, did we manage that’ but the answer is in the paragraph above.  The desire to succeed is deep rooted.

In 2014 Rubicon Heritage were commissioned by Cork County Council to undertake an audit of heritage assets owned by the County Council. The audit was intended to assess a wide variety of these properties by providing an overall background/description of the selected sites and identifying the main heritage characteristics and status/functionality of each. We have compiled a series of blogs based on the information gathered during the audit to highlight a number of the selected sites and the amazing archaeology in County Cork. Our next site is Camden Fort. ​

​Fort Camden, or Fort Meagher as it has been known since its renaming following the return of the Treaty Ports in 1938, is located on Rams Head near Crosshaven in Co. Cork. It is one of the key defences of Cork Harbour along with Fort Carlisle/Davis and Fort Westmoreland/Mitchel. The area has seen fortification over an extended period, with a 1685 map showing a small blockhouse or battery nearby; a 1690 map depicts a bastioned fort that engaged with the Williamite navy during the War of the Two Kings. A significant remodelling began around 1798 with the advent of the Revolutionary and later the Napoleonic Wars. 

​In 1842 the fort consisted of a roughly rectangular area enclosed by a ditch on the landward side. The Fort was used as a convict prison between 1850 and 1855 before it was returned to full military use and was further remodelledby 1870 there were new gun emplacements and landward defences in place. It was at this time that major underground passages and emplacements were created which included a large magazine and which now accounts for a large proportion of the fort. World War I saw the fitting of further features when the harbour was of vital importance as a naval base. 

​The fortification is regarded as ‘one of the finest remaining examples of a classical coastal artillery fort in the world’ (CamdenFortMeagher.ie). It was acquired by Cork County Council in 1989 and since 2010 has been the focus of an initiative by the local community through the Crosshaven Community Assocation and Crosshaven Tourism, together with Cork County Council led to begin clearing and maintaining the site. These efforts have ultimately led to the formation of Rescue Camden and significant development of the site, largely led by volunteers. A number of buildings are now accessible as a result, and the site is a growing tourist attraction in the harbour area, hosting events such as military shows and picture exhibitions. 

The site of Caherduggan Castle is located in the townland of Caherduggan North, 3km west of the village of Doneraile on the R581. Works by Cork County Council to eliminate a dangerous bend in the R581 road between New Twopothouse and Doneraile revealed the remains of a medieval towerhouse with associated defensive works, including a revetted fosse. As the towerhouse remains were beneath a planned access road onto the 2km realignment, an alternative route was feasible and was subsequently designed, facilitating the preservation of the castle remains in situ. The peripheral areas of the castle site were subjected to full archaeological excavation in 2011.

The preserved footprint of Caherduggan Castle consisted of the four walls of the building, made up of a rubble core faced internally and externally with squared stone blocks. The remains of the north wall were the best preserved, measuring 14.4m in length and 2.4m wide. The first step of a possible intra-mural staircase was identified within the fabric of this wall. An entrance flagstone survived in the north-west corner of the building. The redesign meant that full excavation of the towerhouse was not necessary and following recording the site was carefully reburied and preserved.

​The excavation of the peripheral areas of the castle produced archaeology from the prehistoric period through to the early modern period. A number of extremely significant finds were uncovered, including preserved medieval leather shoes, a medieval die and the only complete knightly medieval peytrel (horse harness) that is known from Ireland and Britain. The settlement evidence indicated that the castle served as a focal point for the area, and surrounding fields most likely conceal the remains of a deserted medieval village.

In 2014 Rubicon Heritage were commissioned by Cork County Council to undertake an audit of heritage assets owned by the County Council. The audit was intended to assess a wide variety of these properties by providing an overall background/description of the selected sites and identifying the main heritage characteristics and status/functionality of each. We have compiled a series of blogs based on the information gathered during the audit to highlight a number of the selected sites and the amazing archaeology in County Cork. Our first site is Ballyvourney Church and Cemetery. 

The development of a new and vibrant campus for Technological University Dublin (formerly D.I.T.) at the site of a former mental hospital in the heart of the city represented a unique project for a variety of reasons.
At just under thirty hectares, the site was one of the largest undeveloped areas within central Dublin and as such was designated a Strategic Development Zone (SDZ). Rubicon Heritage Services Ltd were delighted to be appointed by the Grangegorman Development Agency (GDA) as their archaeological consultants, tasked with managing the cultural heritage assets at the site.

A key goal of archaeology as an industry is making our findings accessible and relevant to the general public, and presenting the results of archaeological projects in ways that bring their story to life and highlight both the similarities and differences between the past and the present.

By Bruce Sutton
As part of works along the N26 Cloongullaun Bridge Realignment Scheme, Co. Mayo, Rubicon Heritage completed the excavation of a large intact burnt mound with two underlying wood lined troughs and associated features. The works were directed by Bruce Sutton, who led a small experienced team of four archaeologists. All works are managed by Mayo County Council National Roads Office and funded by Transport Infrastructure Ireland. Archaeological works were administered by the Project Archaeologist Richard Gillespie, who also completed the initial test-trenching which identified the site in 2019. Ongoing post-excavation works, based on dating, specialist analyses and research will help further interpret the site. 

This talk focuses on archaeological methods and practices; what archaeologists do and how they do it.