County: Louth Site name: CASTLETOWN, Dundalk
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0281
Author: Donald Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 703029m, N 808610m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.016411, -6.427892
The site of a proposed school extension in the De La Salle College, Castletown, Dundalk, was archaeologically tested on 22 December 1995. The site lies c. 60m west of Bellews Castle and within an area of archaeological potential. Six trenches were excavated along the lines of the proposed foundation trenches. In the southern half of the site, boulder clay was encountered at a depth of 0.3m. Further north, up to 1.5m of made-up ground was present on top of the boulder clay. The made-up ground is of relatively recent date, as was evidenced from finds of 19th-century pottery fragments within the deposit at a depth of 1.3m. The school which stands on the site was constructed on the slope of a natural hill and it would appear that the site was levelled (i.e. cut into the side of the hill) before the school was constructed. Material that was excavated from the southern portion of the site was used to raise ground level in the northern half of the site. No archaeological features were discovered with the exception of an old field drain running west from the castle field. This field fence is present on the OS maps for the area and is of fairly recent date.
30 Laurence St., Drogheda, Co. Louth
