County: Louth Site name: DROGHEDA: Marsh Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 24:41 Licence number: 02E1510
Author: Elizabeth Connolly
Site type: Historic town
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 709574m, N 775061m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.713717, -6.340037
Monitoring of engineering boreholes and trial-pits took place in October 2002 on the site of the proposed Scotch Hall 2 development, which involves the construction of a hotel, a cineplex, a multi-storey carpark and apartments. The boreholes and trial-pits were excavated in the Campbells and McDonnells sites on the south side of the River Boyne, to the north of the Marsh Road, Lagavoreen.
Eight trial-pits and six boreholes were excavated. They revealed a fairly uniform stratigraphy throughout the site, with several layers of mixed rubble fills overlying a mixed brown clay fill. Beneath the clay was a natural orange clay that lay on an alluvial silt. Beneath this was bedrock. The rubble fills were c. 1m deep, as was the mixed brown clay fill. Finds from the mixed clay included shell, animal bone, clay-pipe fragments, modern glass and modern delft. In Trial-pit 6, c. 25m north of the back wall of Campbells Soups, the possible rubble foundation of a wall was found, 0.8m deep and 0.5m wide. In Borehole 6, near the Marsh Road entrance to McDonnells, a concentration of red brick was recorded, indicating the presence of a wall or a wall foundation.
Glenbonniv, Feakle, Co. Clare
