County: Monaghan Site name: MONAGHAN: Town centre carpark development, Dublin Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0293
Author: Daniel Leo Swan, Arch-Tech Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 667136m, N 833605m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.246885, -6.969886
In accordance with the recommendations of the National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, a programme of archaeological testing was carried out on the above site in September 1996.
A series of four trenches were mechanically opened, and all were dug to reveal the underlying natural deposits. There was a significant variation in the composition of these deposits over the whole area of the site. In the northern portion of the site the bedrock was lying close to the surface and outcropping in places. It consisted of limestone beds, horizontally laid, and was overlain for the most part by a thin deposit of much-disturbed earth. The overlying deposit had been partly removed in places as a result of site clearance operations, but where it had survived it was clear that it contained modern debris at every level. This material included brick, mortar, butchered bone and delph in fairly large quantities.
Towards the central portion of the site the bedrock shelved steeply downwards, and the cuttings exposed deposits of boulder clay overlying the bedrock. This in turn dipped steeply downwards and was seen to be overlain by an increasingly deep deposit of white marl. Towards the lower or southern part of the site the marl shelved steeply and was overlain by a layer of peat, which, though initially only a few centimetres thick, increased in depth until the marl was no longer visible even at a depth of 2.5m.
Thus it is obvious that the southern portion of the site was once a substantial lake, now replaced by deep deposits of white marl underlying the peat. These findings are consistent with the results of previous testings in this area.
The surface deposits are consistent with the use of this area as a casual rubbish dump, with no evidence for significant occupational activity.
No archaeological features or artefacts were revealed and in no case were deposits of archaeological significance encountered.
32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2
