2005:1047 - DOOLARGY, Louth

Test-trenches were excavated as part of an assessment undertaken in connection with a planning application for a dwelling house. Two closely adjacent enclosure sites, SMR 4:44 and 4:45, are listed in both the RMP and the earlier SMR but were omitted from the Archaeological Inventory of County Louth and the Archaeological Survey of County Louth. The enclosures are shown on the first edition of the 6-inch OS map, surveyed in 1835, as roughly circular areas, 40m diameter (4:44) and less than 20m (4:45), defined by dotted lines. The enclosures do not appear on the second edition, of 1862, by which time small fields had reclaimed the lower mountain slopes. The circle marking the position of site 4:44 on the 1996 RMP map is not centred on the monument but rather on the field to the north-west, where test-trenches were excavated by Rosanne Meenan in 2001 (Excavations 2001, No. 840, 01E0334).

In 1998, as part of an earlier assessment for a house carried out by the writer, the smaller site (4:45) was identified on the ground as a 20m by 16m enclosure defined by a collapsed stone wall of large granite boulders. The site for the house was moved south from its proposed location and the enclosure has been retained as a ring of stones in the garden of the house (complete with fairies!).

The larger enclosure was the subject of the 2005 investigation. No definite trace of the enclosure could be identified on the ground during a field inspection. The sloping five-sided rectilinear field in which the enclosure is located has more or less reverted to mountain vegetation of high tufted grass, furze, heather and some small trees.

Five test-trenches were excavated by machine through the wet peaty soil, which varied from 0.15m to 0.35m in thickness between the top and bottom of the slope. Closely spaced parallel furrows, 1.2–1.4m apart (centre to centre), running east–west in line with the natural slope, were exposed in all the trenches. The furrows were 0.4–0.5m wide and extended 0.1–0.15m deep into the clay subsoil. In two trenches the tumbled remains of a drystone wall, 1.5m wide and 0.3m high, were found on the expected line of the south side of the enclosure shown on the 1835 survey. It appears that the present-day straight walls on the north, west and east sides of the field have replaced the curved wall of the enclosure. A loose spread of stones, extending for 1.3m along one trench, was the only feature uncovered inside the enclosure, which may have functioned as a sheep pen rather than a habitation site. No artefacts were recovered.

6 St Ultan’s, Laytown, Co. Meath