1994:178 - HAGGARDSTOWN, Blackrock, Dundalk, Louth

A watching brief of a proposed dwelling house at Old Golf Links Road, Blackrock, Dundalk, was carried out on June 30, 1994. The site of the proposed development lay within the haggard that originally surrounded Caisleán Uachtarach Baile Sagairt. Two years previously the topsoil was removed from the entire site leaving the natural shaly soil exposed over most of it.

During the opening of the foundation trenches four features were discovered. A cut 0.8m wide and 0.6m deep (F1) ran roughly in a north-south direction and was filled almost entirely with shells. No datable evidence was recovered. A second ditch-like feature 2m wide at the top and of the same depth was also discovered in the north-east corner of the site. It ran in an east-west direction and was cut by F1. It had no shell but was filled with a sterile brown shaly soil. At the western end of this feature a third loose stone-filled trench was picked up stretching in a north-south direction for 4m. The fourth feature, a circular pit also filled with cockle shells, was uncovered in the westernmost foundation trench. It was 2m in diameter and about 0.8m deep at the centre. Again no datable evidence was recovered.

The site has been interfered with in the past through farming operations and the only sherds recovered from the surface are late post-medieval in date. The function of the trenches and pit and their date is inconclusive. They may represent 17th-19th-century drainage channels connected with farming. Alternatively they could be connected with the castle which stood to the west of the site. The site itself is within the haggard that surrounded the castle on its eastern side. If this is the case, then the trenches and pit have been subsequently interfered with leaving them quite insignificant.

30 Laurence St., Drogheda, Co. Louth