Despite the court case, the only thing preventing work at Carrickmines Castle yesterday morning was the weather.
As the rain pelted down, the team of more than 30 archaeologists was idle for much of the morning, as were the diggers and machines working on other parts of the site.
Most of the archaeologists have been excavating and removing the remains of the castle fortifications or fosse, which is on the south-eastern part of the site.
Constructed of large granite stones, the remains of the fosse, about a metre high, are embedded into the bedrock.
Yesterday afternoon, it was clear to onlookers that the archaeologists had been working hard. Since work restarted last Monday, an entire section of the fosse, up to 20 metres in length, which lies in the path of the motorway, had been removed.
When work resumed yesterday, the large group of archaeologists had moved on to another section of the fosse, also along the line of the motorway, and were busy cleaning it with trowels and shovels in preparation for removal.
As was the case with the other section, after cleaning, the archaeologists photograph the structure. They then remove it stone by stone and by hand. Samples of the mortar and material between the stones are also taken.
Outside Court number six, where the case was being heard by Mr Justice Peart, the archaeologists heading up the project rejected the claims of conservationists that this was tantamount to the destruction of castle. They also rejected as entirely untrue claims that diggers and earthmovers, working on another part of the site, were destroying any parts of the castle.
These machines were working on areas of the site that had been entirely excavated and there were no artefacts remaining to be discovered. There were no permanent features on this part of the site that could be destroyed, they said, and all of this work was being supervised by archaeologists.
"The perception is that we are destroying the castle with diggers and bulldozers, which is not, in fact the case," said Ms Valerie Keeley, whose commercial archaeology firm is carrying out the work.
"What is happening under our direction is the excavation and orderly removal of the \ which would be standard practice in relation to archaeological excavations. By doing this we are preserving the information about the site for the heritage of the country."
Meanwhile, local Green TD Mr Ciarán Cuffe also visited the site and took a tour of the most significant part of the remains, which do not lie along the path of the motorway, but will be seriously affected by the motorway plan.
Many of these features, including wells and other stone remains will either be covered in earth or concrete arches to facilitate the construction of a roundabout for the motorway.
"You're looking at a lot of archaeology here," Mr Cuffe said, "and this roundabout seems to have gotten a lot larger in recent years."