County: Laois Site name: BALLYCOOLID
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 28:45 Licence number: 05E0563
Author: Dominic Delany, Dominic Delany & Associates, Unit 3, Howley Court, Oranmore, Co. Galway
Site type: Ditch
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 628792m, N 679718m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.867598, -7.572370
Pre-development testing was carried out on the site of a proposed new dwelling at Ballycoolid, Co. Laois, on 9 June 2005. The site is partly located within the area of constraint around an enclosure. There are no surface traces of the monument, but old OS maps clearly indicate that it extended onto the north-west part of the development site. This area is designated as a paddock on the development layout plan.
A tracked excavator fitted with a wide toothless digging bucket was retained to open four trenches on the footprint of the proposed development. A continuous trench (90m long) was opened along the route of the proposed driveway and three shorter trenches (10–20m long) were excavated on the sites of the house, percolation area and garage. The stratigraphy was relatively uniform across the tested area. The topsoil was 0.3m in thickness and overlay silty sand subsoil, which varied from orange/brown to grey/brown and grey/white in colour. A clearly defined, curving linear ditch (2.5m wide) was exposed in the southern part of the site, c. 50m south-east of the enclosure. A second feature of possible archaeological significance was uncovered just 2.5m north-east of the ditch feature. It appears to have been disturbed by a percolation test hole, which appeared as a spread of ‘upcast’ stone and gravel. The edges of the feature are quite irregular and it could not be safely described as a ditch cut. However, the exposed material was similar to the fill of the nearby curving linear ditch and the orientation of the feature suggests it may well be associated with that ditch. It could conceivably be a second, outer ditch pertaining to the enclosure represented by the curving linear ditch.
It was recommended that the features discovered be preserved in situ and protected by the establishment of an adequate buffer zone within which no development work may take place. Consequently it was recommended that the proposed septic tank, soak pit and percolation area should be relocated, subject to the approval of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the planning authority.
