County: Louth Site name: FINNABAIR, Marshes Upper, Dundalk
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0835
Author: Linda Clarke, Archaeological Consultancy Services
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 706348m, N 804892m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.982345, -6.378557
An excavation was carried out on a proposed commercial/residential development site at Finnabair, Marshes Upper, Dundalk. The site is on a raised beach in close proximity to several SMR sites and was initially identified as a possible shell midden. No evidence was retrieved during the excavation to support this suggestion. The type of shell recovered from the site was quite limited: common European edible cockle (Cerastoderma edule), Atlantic slipper limpet (Crepidula fornicata), winkle (Littorina littoralis) and mussel shells. This is most unlike the shell middens excavated in nearby Rockmarshall, which were rich in charcoal and shells, most notably oyster, periwinkle, limpet, whelk, mussel and cockle. The claws of crab and fishbone were also a common feature. The shell exposed on this site therefore represents a linear band of shell which merely indicates the original shoreline. The storm debris lies 1.5m below the formation level of the proposed development; there will be no impact on this natural feature.
15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
