2002:1292 - BALREGAN, Louth

Testing was required at Balregan, west of Dundalk, Co. Louth, as it is on the proposed route of the Dundalk Western Bypass. The site is on a promontory, or area of high ground, between the Castletown River and the Kilcurry River and terminates at their confluence, to the east. The antiquarian Thomas Wright, in his book Louthiana (1758), depicted a number of possible megalithic monuments, including stone cairns and standing stones, at this confluence. Although his drawing is not to scale, it was inferred from the location of the monuments that the road-take might impinge on potential archaeological remains.

Testing, carried out using a 20-tonne machine equipped with a flat, toothless bucket, began on 5 April 2002 and continued with hand testing until 16 April. Offset trenches were excavated from an east–west-running centre-line trench (2m wide) at intervals of 25m within the area of proposed road-take. This was supplemented with four east–west-oriented trenches on the high ground overlooking the main area.

The testing identified a large spread of mixed stones c. 60m south of the Kilcurry River and 5m east of the western extremity of the proposed motorway. A trench was opened over the stone material and cleaned down by hand. The stone spread measured c. 17m and had an average depth of 0.25–0.3m; it was composed mainly of river-rolled cobbles. Beneath this material a thin lens (c. 0.1m) of charcoal-rich, silty material with occasional flecks of burnt bone was recorded.

Approximately 20m north-east of the stone spread a circular pit was recorded. The pit was 0.6m in diameter and 0.2m deep and contained a single fill (black silt with frequent amounts of charcoal and burnt bone). A linear feature was situated c. 30m east of the stone spread. It ran north-east/south-west for a distance of 6.5m and curved to the east at its northern limit. It was 1.5m wide and 0.45m deep and contained a single fill with occasional flecks of charcoal.

8 Dungar Terrace, Dún Laoghaire, Co. Dublin