County: Longford Site name: BALLINALEE OR ST JOHNSTONE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0696
Author: Eoin Halpin, Archaeological Development Services
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 622522m, N 780850m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.776746, -7.658313
Archaeological work was required on this site due to the proximity of a possible castle (SMR 9:2) thought to be located immediately to the south-west of the proposed development. Testing and subsequent topsoil monitoring for a housing development was carried out in May and June 2004 respectively.
The stratigraphy of the site was uniform across the area. Topsoil consisted of a loose, mid-brown clay with occasional stones. The depth of topsoil removed was c. 0.2–0.6m. The topsoil directly overlay the natural subsoil, which varied from a light-orange sandy clay to a grey stony clay. The numerous linear features noted during testing were seen during monitoring to be the result of agricultural activity and consisted of lazy beds and field boundaries. The extent of these features was fully revealed. The other anomaly noted in testing was revealed to be geological in nature. The bedrock (shale) is very close to the surface in this area and caused a darkening of the subsoil. Throughout other parts of the site were small patches of discoloured subsoil, which was the result of decayed shale stone. However, no trace of the possible castle site was found. Furthermore, no other archaeologically significant features or artefacts were identified during monitoring.
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