County: Louth Site name: Deepforde, Drogheda
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0650 ext.
Author: Audrey Gahan, Gahan & Long Ltd, 7–9 Castlereagh Street, Belfast, BT5 4NE.
Site type: Prehistoric
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 711244m, N 773770m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.701768, -6.315212
Initial monitoring of this site was conducted by Linda Clarke, ACS Ltd, in advance of the construction of a new housing development at Deepforde, Drogheda (Excavations 2005, No. 1051). A series of archaeological features were uncovered and excavation, by Gahan & Long Ltd, began in July 2007.
The area where the archaeology had been uncovered lay to the south of the site. It was bounded on the remaining sides by farmland. The features uncovered comprised two burnt mounds, 24 pits, eleven post-holes, a fire/hearth, the remains of a curvilinear ditch and a linear ditch.
The first of the burnt mounds was located near the southern limit of excavation and was composed of a thin layer of burnt material which overlay two troughs. One of the troughs was rectangular in plan and measured 2.35m north–south by 1.1m. The second trough was subrectangular in plan and measured 1.75m north-west/south-east by 1.15m. There were two stake-holes located in the north of this trough and these may represent the remains of an associated structure.
A large pit was located adjacent to the burnt mound and may have been sealed by the burnt spread in antiquity. It was subcircular in plan and measured 2.53m east–west by 1.92m.
The second burnt mound was located at the south-east of the site and was composed of a thin layer of burnt-mound material which partially overlay two large troughs. Both troughs were subcircular in plan and measured 3.25m north–south by 3.25m and 2.84m north–south by 2.47m respectively.
A series of pits were scattered across the site. Most were small and no function could be assigned to them. There were, however, four possible refuse pits and a hearth.
The site also contained nine post-holes. Most of these were unrelated to other features, with the exception of a group of four post-holes which possibly represented a small structure and were located c. 0.7m from one another.
The final features on site were comprised of a long curvilinear ditch which contained three post-holes and a stake-hole near the south-west terminal. The ditch measured 10m north–south and had a maximum width of 0.62m. Both ends of the ditch appeared to peter out, suggesting that it had been truncated in antiquity. The three post-holes appeared to have been contemporary with the ditch and were possibly load bearing. The stake-hole located to the south-west was possibly part of the structure. It was thought this could be the remains of a penannular house structure with any internal features and the remainder of the ditch truncated in antiquity.
