County: Monaghan Site name: MONALTYDUFF (2, Site 104)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E1299
Author: Tim Coughlan, Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 688232m, N 802611m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.965262, -6.655338
An excavation in Monaltyduff, c. 2km to the south-east of Carrickmacross, in advance of the construction of the N2 Carrickmacross-Aclint Road Realignment, was funded by Monaghan County Council and the National Roads Authority. The site was identified during a testing exercise undertaken by Tim Coughlan in March–April 2003 (No. 1482, Excavations 2003, 03E0388).
The site was located on the crest of a low drumlin. There was evidence of a number of curved and linear ditches and cut features along a drumlin crest. Several trenches were excavated, in an attempt to identify a pattern in the ditches. The ditches did not form any recognisable pattern and snaked irregularly across the high ground at the top of a hill, which overlooked a medieval Hollow Way and Broken Bridge to the west-north-west and Lough Naglack and associated crannog to the north-west.
The site was stripped of topsoil using a machine fitted with a toothless bucket. An area was opened up around the feature identified during earlier testing. The site consisted of meandering drainage channels across the top of the drumlin. There was nothing found to accurately date the features, but they probably pre-date the present field system, which bisects one of the drains. The present field system is shown on the first-edition OS map of 1835 and the drainage channels can thus be dated to before the early 19th century.
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