County: Louth Site name: BALLYMASCANLAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 4:0206 Licence number: 96E0039
Author: Kieran Campbell
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 707028m, N 810509m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.032660, -6.366228
The site for a house is situated on the south side of the Dundalk-Greenore road on elevated ground overlooking the estuaries of the Castletown and Flurry rivers. Owing to the discovery of a souterrain during road realignment works in 1973, an archaeological condition was attached to the grant of planning permission.
Test-trenching revealed the presence of a ditch, 2.5–3m wide and up to 1.85m deep, taking a curving course across the proposed site for the house. Animal bones and mussel shells were observed in the ditch fills. The available evidence suggests that this was the ditch of an enclosure of the Early Christian period. It is estimated that the ditch, if it formed a circle, would enclose an area approximately 48m in diameter. This would place the souterrain discovered in 1973 within the supposed enclosure. It is also possible that the enclosure had an irregular shape or was an annexe to a large earthwork which survives on the north side of the road.
The house was subsequently built 10m from the enclosure ditch. No further archaeological deposits were observed during monitoring of the site works.
6 St Ultans, Laytown, Drogheda. Co. Louth
