County: Down Site name: GLENLOUGHAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/03/45
Author: Philip Macdonald, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 707004m, N 844059m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.334003, -6.354675
A small-scale excavation was undertaken at Glenloughan, Aghaderg, near Banbridge, in advance of a proposed housing development. The site is located immediately to the north of a well-preserved rath with an annexed addition, excavated in 1953 (Archaeological Survey of County Down 1966, 164, no. 528, fig. 101; SMR 33:5). The close proximity of the proposed development to the rath prompted the Environment and Heritage Service: Built Heritage to undertake an archaeological evaluation of the building plot prior to any construction work being undertaken. Five machine-cut trenches were excavated; however, the only artificial deposit uncovered was a stone-filled, negative feature in the easternmost trench (Trench A). Following consultation, it was decided that a limited excavation would be undertaken, with the objective of ascertaining the character and date of the feature.
Excavation took place during May 2003. Excavation of a short length of the stone-filled, negative feature demonstrated that it was a mechanically excavated field drain. A fragment of modern bottle glass recovered from the fill confirmed the feature’s relatively recent date. In addition to the field drain, no other archaeological features or deposits were identified during the course of the excavation.
Reference
Archaeological Survey of County Down. 1966 An archaeological survey of County Down. Belfast.
School of Archaeology & Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast BT7 1NN
