County: Louth Site name: DUNDALK
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0225
Author: Carmel Duffy, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 704512m, N 806587m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.997945, -6.405957
Testing was carried out in connection with the Dundalk Sewerage Scheme upgrading project. The testing took place along Lines 7 and 9, east and west of the Dublin road in the suburbs to the southern side of the town. An assessment carried out in November 1997 by Valerie J. Keeley Ltd identified this area as archaeologically sensitive, as the sewerage pipeline runs through an area where flint scatters and what may be a Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age settlement site were found.
Eight trenches were dug, each 10m x 2m, up to a maximum depth of 1.9m. Trenches A1–3 lay in an old Iarnrod Éireann yard and had evidence of railway activities in them. A2 contained an old storm-water pipe. A3 contained part of a wall, 1m high, 16.5m long and 0.5m thick. The wall was earthbound on the southern side and was probably part of a construction associated with the railway. A4 and A7 contained peat growth. A5–7 all had a similar soil profile: modern stone infill; black silt with stones; brown clay with small, angular stones; red boulder clay; brown clay with modern artefacts-pottery, glass and bone; boulder clay and grey-green sand to the bottom.
This generalised profile seems to characterise how the railway embankment was constructed, and a similar pattern was observed during monitoring of the laying of the sewerage pipe further along the embankment.
None of the eight investigation trenches contained anything of archaeological significance.
The Mill Road, Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath
