County: Donegal Site name: EAST PORT, Ballyshannon
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 107:113 Licence number: 03E1394
Author: Mary Henry, Mary Henry Archaeological Services Ltd.
Site type: Bridge
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 587856m, N 861241m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.499461, -8.187472
Monitoring of groundworks for the construction of a new Credit Union building was undertaken at East Port to the south of Ballyshannon town centre, on the south bank of the River Erne.
Nothing of archaeological interest was uncovered in the course of monitoring. The development site is located on the course of a partially infilled river (i.e. the southern section of the river). With the exception of one surviving arch and two buttresses of a once substantial bridge across the River Erne, little remained to suggest that a river extended along this part of the Ballyshannon. It has been suggested that the southern arch facilitated flood and storm waters when the River Erne was at full volume during heavy rainfall. With the diversion and constricting of the River Erne channel in the early 1950s, it was necessary to fill in this part of its course. Stone, building debris and dark soil were imported from elsewhere and built up from the riverbed, which is in fact a flat, level sheet of shale. Traces of black river silts were noticeable sitting on the shale in places.
17 Staunton Row, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
