2026:052 - Main Street & Gaol Lane, Townparks, Daingean, Offaly

It is proposed to renovate a cottage and construct four, 2-bedroom single storey semi-detached dwellings on a site located at the northern end, and eastern side, of Main Street, Daingean, with the rear bounded to the immediate north by a section of Gaol Lane.

The site is located within the Zone of Archaeological Potential established for Daingean – SMR No: OF018-006; the zone is included in the Record of Monuments and Places and subject to statutory protection under the provisions of the National Monuments Acts  1930 – 2004.

The town is of sixteenth-century origin and the incorporating charter of 1569-70 allowed the corporation ‘to fortify the town with fosses and stone walls’, while in 1570-1 there was a grant of 12 messuages with lands and tenements ‘within the circuit of the walls and fosse of the town’, and a common of pasture in the great moor by the town, one water mill ‘within the walls excepted”. There are no extant wall defences within the town and the exact defence circuit is not known. Indeed, it is unclear from the paucity of records as to whether any defences, other than the fort, were ever constructed. It is speculated that Gaol Lane may preserve the north-eastern section of the possible route of the defences of the town, if ever constructed.

A programme of Archaeological Testing was undertaken within the site. A total of four archaeological test trenches were excavated within the available areas of the rear garden area, which is very overgrown with trees and dense shrubby undergrowth. Removal of the upper topsoil layer, which was up to 0.6m in depth, uncovered a very compact stoney layer in a matrix of gravelly sand; the compact and sterile nature of the basal layer indicated that it was of ‘natural’ derivation and related to a short east-west ridge at the northern end of the town, from which the lands to the immediate south slope gently downwards into an area of deep peat.  No subsurface features of archaeological potential were uncovered and no artefactual material of archaeological or historical interest was recovered.