County: Louth Site name: STONETOWN LOWER/NEWTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 00E0927
Author: Finola O’Carroll, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 690864m, N 802911m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.967501, -6.615143
Pre-development testing was undertaken prior to the granting of planning permission for a single dwelling-house at Stonetown Lower, Co. Louth. The site lies within the constraint zone of SMR 11:102, a possible castle site, and is in the townlands of Stonetown Lower and Newtown, crossing the townland boundary.
Seven test-trenches were excavated by mechanical digger. Topsoil varied from 0.15m to 0.3m in depth over a B-horizon of lighter-coloured stonier soil, on average 0.15m in depth. Subsoil consisted of a mottled clay with a gravel component. Test-trench 3 exposed a number of faint furrow-marks. No trace of the townland boundary was exposed. Nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered.
An inspection of the surrounding area revealed no evidence of the ‘stones marking the location of the castle’ reported by the Irish Folklore Commission. No structure is marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map. However, an adjacent townland is named Castletate. A ‘tate’ was a land division term peculiar to Monaghan and Fermanagh, and usually corresponded to a single townland. The present townland of Castletate is quite small, but it is possible that it was formerly larger and that the townlands of Stonetown Lower, Stonetown Upper and Newtown are later divisions.
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