County: Louth Site name: STONETOWN LOWER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0054
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. It is bounded on the south-east by a lane forming the townland boundary, and a derelict stone house currently occupies part of the site (permission to demolish and rebuild this structure had been granted).
Three test-trenches were excavated by mechanical digger in the area of the house site. The topsoil was on average c. 0.5m in depth with modern disturbance, consisting of a dark brown humus, with a c. 0.15m-thick B-horizon that was stonier and lighter-coloured. The subsoil was a sandy clay with a large amount of shattered stone. Nothing of archaeological interest was exposed.
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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