County: Wexford Site name: SALVILLE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0326
Author: Isabel Bennett, for Mary Henry and Associates.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 697454m, N 637966m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.484400, -6.565164
A development site for which first outline and then full planning permission was granted had a detailed condition relating to the potential archaeology of the site, in view of its position between two known monuments, SMR 26:14, a boulder burial, and 26:15, a motte. Although archaeological testing was a requirement of the permission, the development went ahead without any testing or monitoring taking place until this test excavation was carried out on 29 July 1998.
The site slopes very steeply to south, above a small stream that flows into the Slaney, only a short distance to the west. It has been substantially altered to provide a level platform on which the house was constructed, at the northern end of the site, and a smooth slope to the south, rather than the stepped one there previously. Inspection of the boundary along the western edge of the site also indicated that the ground level had been reduced in that immediate area to below subsoil level.
Neither the motte nor the boulder burial is visible from the site, although if the motte were less overgrown it might be possible to make it out.
At the extreme northern end of the site the original ground level was lowered by between 1.3m (at the eastern end) and 1.7m (at the western end) to provide a level platform for the house. But in front of it the ground was built up.
Given the severely altered nature of the ground it was difficult to find any original ground level left undisturbed, especially as the site was now covered with drawn-in topsoil and a lawn planted. Two trenches were dug, but nothing was found that was consistent with an original ground level, with only stony, redeposited topsoil encountered until the subsoil was reached, at an average depth of 0.4m or less.
Nothing of an archaeological nature was found.
Glen Fahan, Ventry, Tralee, Co. Kerry
