County: Louth Site name: HAGGARDSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0876
Author: Eoin Halpin, Archaeological Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 703898m, N 802171m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.958402, -6.416821
Geophysical survey over a 14.5ha site at Haggardstown, Dundalk, Co. Louth, suggested the possibility of subsurface archaeological deposits in the form of ditches, enclosures and a fulachta fiadh. Test-trenching was carried out across these geophysical anomalies to determine whether or not they were archaeological in nature and if so to ascertain their extent and date.
A total of 21 trenches were mechanically opened across these anomalies. All but three indicated that the anomalies were the results of the underlying geology and were not archaeological in nature. One trench had a series of narrow gullies running diagonally across the trench, filled with a charcoal-flecked peat-like loam and sealed with material from which clay pipe and late post-medieval pottery were recovered. A second trench was opened up close to an area where there is a tradition of the presence of a souterrain. A linear charcoal-flecked spread was uncovered in this trench, although its date and its association with a stone setting, recorded locally as a souterrain, are unknown.
Although the testing indicates that, in general, the results of the geophysical testing are not archaeological in nature, they do not exclude the possibility of subsurface archaeological deposits surviving in situ between the trenches.
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