County: Donegal Site name: BALLYSHANNON: Church Lane
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E0529
Author: Richard Crumlish
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 587420m, N 861646m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.503089, -8.194216
Pre-development testing was carried out at the site of the proposed refurbishment of an existing two-storey garage/store to an apartment dwelling unit at Church Lane, Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, on 16 April and 29 August 2003. The proposed development was located within the zone of archaeological potential for Ballyshannon town (SMR 107:53). A short distance west of the proposed development was a Church of Ireland parish church and graveyard.
Some groundworks had been carried out prior to archaeological involvement with the project, therefore one trench was excavated to cover the groundworks, which had not as yet been carried out (i.e. those along a narrow lane to the east of the building). The trench measured 8.5m long, 0.8–1.3m wide and 0.3–1.2m deep.
The stratigraphy revealed consisted of rubble fill above natural subsoil, a stone chamber and associated collapse. A plastic duct entered the chamber from the back yard of an adjacent dwelling, while a ceramic pipe exited from the south side of the chamber, along the length of the trench, towards Church Lane.
The rubble fill contained modern artefacts. Modern artefacts were also recovered from the interior of the chamber, which suggested a modern date for its construction. The re-examination of the same feature in August confirmed its function as a manhole, associated with domestic sewerage and most likely dated to the 18th or 19th century. The associated collapse to the north of the stone chamber would appear either to be collapse from the north wall of the chamber or a soakage pit, associated with the same sewerage system.
61 An Cladrach, Castlebar Road, Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo
