County: Meath Site name: DONAGHMORE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0655
Author: Eoin Halpin, Archaeological Development Services
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 688607m, N 769975m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.672005, -6.659023
The site is located close to Donaghmore Bridge. The development area, which is some 1.67ha in extent, consists of an area of pasture. The proposed development is a dormer-style house of 3340ft2. The area of the development is within the zone of archaeological potential of the site of a souterrain SMR 45:9, with the sites of a motte (SMR 45:7), church (SMR 45:8) and ring-ditch (SMR 45:10) located to the south-west, south and south-east respectively. Although there is a tradition that the area of the souterrain has been subjected to quarrying in the past, there is a record of human remains having been discovered in the locality in the National Museum's topographical files ref: IA/178/56.
Testing was carried out in April 2004. Four trenches were excavated by machine. Two were placed east-west across the footprint of the proposed house, while a third was excavated along the driveway/service route. The final trench was along the line of the proposed sewage pipeline and soakaway. The topsoil was a dark-brown gravelly loam. It was less than 0.1m in depth and came off directly onto a gravel subsoil. No archaeological features were noted during this testing.
Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ
