County: Louth Site name: NORTHERN MOTORWAY (Gormanston to Monasterboice), Tullyallen/Mell/Hill of Rath/Balgatheran/Coolfore/Newtown Monasterboice/Bawntaafe
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0282
Author: Kieran Campbell, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 704329m, N 777511m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.736795, -6.418633
This licence was originally issued to cover topsoil-stripping on the route of the Northern Motorway (Gormanston to Monasterboice) in Tullyallen and Mell townlands, Co. Louth, for a period of nine weeks from 2 May 2000. The licence was ultimately extended to 30 September 2001 to cover monitoring of the entire route of the motorway in County Louth, with the associated link roads and approaches to the Boyne Bridge, and also for monitoring on certain sections of the motorway in County Meath (see below). In Louth the motorway passed through the townlands of Tullyallen, Mell, Hill of Rath, Balgatheran, Coolfore, Newtown Monasterboice and Bawntaafe. Reports on the majority of the sites uncovered have appeared in Excavations 2000 (Nos 638–41, 649–50, 689–90, 694–8, 700–5, 715–19). One site, No. 689, Hill of Rath 1, was mistakenly placed on the Dunleer–Dundalk motorway.
The excavation of several sites, discovered in 2000, took place or continued into 2001 and are reported on in this volume.
Licence no, Site, Excavator, Report no.
00E0430, Mell 2, R.M. Chapple, see No. 869, Excavations 2001
00E0631, Mell 3, T.C. Breen, see No. 870, Excavations 2001
01E0067, Mell 4, K. Campbell, see No. 871, Excavations 2001
00E0947 ,Tullyallen, K. Campbell, see No. 882, Excavations 2001
00E0905, Balgatheran, 4 C. Ó Drisceoil, see No. 833, Excavations 2001
6 St Ultan’s, Laytown, Drogheda
