County: Armagh Site name: BESSBROOK: Green Road, Derrymore
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 26:8 Licence number: AE/00/22
Author: Eoin Halpin, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 704828m, N 828006m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.190267, -6.393722
The site of a rath, known as Derrymore Fort, is located within the bounds of a proposed housing development, on Green Road, Bessbrook, Co. Armagh. A series of test-trenches revealed the presence of a ditch and associated internal bank, enclosing an area roughly 50m in diameter. Slight evidence for internal structures was noted, in the form of lengths of curving gullies, which if projected would describe circles of approximately 10m in diameter. A single sherd of souterrain ware was recovered from one of the sampled features, suggesting that the site can be tentatively dated to the Early Christian period.
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