County: Louth Site name: PRIORSTATE, Louth
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 11:38 Licence number: 94E027 (ext.)
Author: Donald Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 695530m, N 801411m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.953189, -6.544524
Archaeological testing and a watching brief were carried out on a site at Louth Village in advance of the construction of twelve dwelling houses in 1994 (Excavations 1994, 65–66). The development was extended in 1995 to incorporate ten more houses to the south. The site lies within the outer enclosure of St Mochta's early monastic site and about 100m east of the medieval Augustinian abbey. Apart from the test-trenches, a watching brief was maintained on all ground disturbance. The testing carried out in 1994 showed that the natural boulder clay appeared quite close to the surface. The only feature discovered was a small trench (1m wide and 0.5m deep) cut into the subsoil and running in a north-west/south-east direction. No finds were recovered which could help to date the feature.
Similar trench-like features were uncovered during the monitoring of excavations for house foundations in 1995. Their function remains unclear but it is possible that they represent field drains or furrows of relatively recent date. Testing also carried out in 1995 for the proposed houses to the south revealed the ground here to be very marshy. The monastic site would appear on present evidence to have been surrounded on the east by a marsh and as a result there may not have been a need for formal earthwork defences in this area. No archaeological features showed up in any of the test-trenches and the only finds recovered were of relatively recent date.
30 Laurence St., Drogheda, Co. Louth
