County: Monaghan Site name: MONAGHAN: The Diamond
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0402
Author: Deirdre Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Building
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 667165m, N 833844m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.249028, -6.969397
An assessment of a proposed commercial development at the Diamond, Monaghan, was carried out in August 1999. The site is on the north side of the Diamond in the townland of Roosky and is not far from the Franciscan friary (SMR 9:39).
Testing was limited to two 1m2 test-pits, as the development is in the interior of a building. Evidence from both pits was very similar. Deposits below the concrete floor of the building exist to a depth of 0.5m and appear to be related to the construction of the present building on the site, which is most likely of late 18th- or early 19th-century date. Below this level a layer of roof slates covering a brown, peaty soil with animal bone was evident. This layer varied from 40mm to 80mm thick and overlay a hard surface composed of gravelly clay, stone and mortar. Both the peaty soil and the gravelly clay were interpreted as floors that relate to an earlier building phase on the site. The presence of roof slates in the overlying fill suggests that the floors belong to a building demolished before the erection of the present structure. A single sherd of brownware recovered from the hard surface would be consistent with a date in the late 17th or early 18th century. Thick clays exposed below these floors containing occasional charcoal flecks and animal bone may represent buried topsoil or garden soil pre-dating building on the site.
It was recommended that further archaeological work be carried out if the development is to proceed as planned.
15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
