County: Louth Site name: RATH LOWER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 8:99 Licence number: 00E0650
Author: Finola O’Carroll, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Ecclesiastical site and Kiln
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 699579m, N 792839m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.875420, -6.485650
Pre-development test-trenching was undertaken in advance of a sheltered housing scheme, covering three fields, believed to be on the site of ‘Grange Abbey’, as marked on the OS 6-inch maps. Part of the grange belonged to the Cistercian abbey of St Mary’s, Newry. Wright’s Louthiana (1758) depicted a church and a tower-house adjoined to the western gable. The roadside field had, until recently, contained two cottages, one of which had a 15/16th-century carved stone head incorporated into a wall. A large stone kiln, incorporated into a boundary wall at the rear of the site, was also investigated.
Ten trenches were opened, covering approximately 22% of the 3600m2 site, which stretches over three fields. Forty-one features were identified. Three appear to be stretches of foundations for an east–west-running wall, which was set against a natural break of slope. A sherd of 12th–13th-century local cooking ware was found in association with the wall. A series of ash spreads and burning was found at the break of slope surrounding the wall footings in one of the trenches. This was sealed by modern deposits of rubble and stone, which created a level ground surface. A 0.5m-high drystone revetment, which was uncovered in a natural hollow set 3m back from and running parallel to the modern road, for a distance of 2.5m, was undated. Two rubbish pits containing shell and butchered animal bone were also undated. Excavations at the kiln produced modern porcelain and glass. Further archaeological testing and monitoring were recommended if the development is to proceed.
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