County: Wexford Site name: FETHARD-ON-SEA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0393
Author: Helen Kehoe
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 679782m, N 605443m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.195000, -6.833000
An assessment was carried out at the football field in Fethard before the grant of planning permission for the erection of a residential dormer bungalow. Fethard-on-sea is on the eastern side of the Shelbourne Peninsula at the entrance to Bannow Bay, some 4km south of Duncannon. The placename is derived from Fiodh Ard, 'the high wood'. The Down Survey refers to the existence of two castles at Fethard, one of which can be identified as the existing structure, the other presumably being the episcopal castle first mentioned in a charter of c. 1200. An account of 1684 describes the town as having 'two or three small castles, a stone house, and also a brick house' (Hore, P.H. [1900–11] History of the town and county of Wexford, Vol. IV, 314).
Three trenches were opened by mechanical digger. All were identical in stratigraphy, consisting of topsoil over a light brown stony clay becoming more compact and stonier at a depth of 2.2m. There was no evidence of features/artefacts of an archaeological nature.
11 Norseman Place, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7
