County: Louth Site name: LIBERTIES OF CARLINGFORD
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LH005-029001 Licence number: 04E1455
Author: Donal Fallon, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 718675m, N 811859m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.042235, -6.187996
Pre-development testing was carried out on the site of a proposed extension to Carlingford Sailing Club on Carlingford Point, a short distance to the southwest of the town and to the north of Ghan Road. The area of the extension is located immediately to the east of the existing club building and slipway, on the northern shoreline of the point.
A kitchen midden is located c. 70m to the east extending along the eastern shoreline of the point. The field is listed as 'Chapel Field' on the first-edition OS map (1835), a 16th-century map depicts a ruined church on Carlingford Point (Gosling 1992, 35) and an entry in the Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls, dating from 1588, refers to 'the walls of a chapel and 80 rigges of land in the Gan, near Carlingford' (Gough-Meissner 1949, 94–95; Morrin 1862, II, 154). A local tradition suggested that the field was a burial ground, with bones apparently exposed at the edge of the field at high tide (Paterson & Davies 1939, 247).
Only a narrow strip of previously undisturbed ground, 30m north-south by 5-6m, will be impacted upon by the proposed development. Three trenches were excavated along the linear axis of the impact area. No archaeological features were exposed and no finds of archaeological significance were recovered. A shallow topsoil layer, c. 0.15m deep, lay directly over natural soils consisting of coarse red sands and gravel.
References
Gosling, P. 1992 Carlingford town: an antiquarian's guide. Carlingford.
Gough-Meissner, Rev. J.L. 1949 The Ghan Carlingford. Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, XII(1), 94–5.
Morrin, James 1862 Calendar of the patent and close rolls of chancery in Ireland, Vol. II, Dublin.
Paterson, T.G.F., and Davies, O. 1939 Carlingford church tower. Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, IX(3), 246–7.
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