County: Louth Site name: ARDEE: Stonylane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 17:10 Licence number: 02E1466
Author: Kieran Campbell
Site type: Ringfort - rath
Period/Dating: Early Medieval (AD 400-AD 1099)
ITM: E 695904m, N 789772m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.848560, -6.542474
Monitoring took place during August and September 2002 of groundworks associated with the construction of 28 houses, the latest phase of a large housing development on the south-west side of Ardee town that has been in progress since the late 1990s. In 1999 unlicensed monitoring had been carried out by the writer during an earlier building phase. The site of a ringfort is gradually being encompassed by the suburban development. The ringfort bank was levelled around twenty years ago, and the site has since been part of a tillage field. The low natural hill on which the ringfort is situated now has a flattish top, 22–23m in diameter, with a gradual break of slope on all sides. There are slight indications of the levelled bank on the west and south-west sides.
The present phase of house construction was on the north side of the ringfort and covered an area of 160m east–west by 170m. No archaeological deposits or features were observed during the monitoring, and only one possible archaeological object was recovered. A glazed stone, found at the base of the topsoil c. 25m west of the ringfort, may be of modern industrial origin.
6 St Ultan’s, Laytown, Drogheda, Co. Louth
