County: Offaly Site name: MAIN STREET, BANAGHER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 21:3 Licence number: 05E1212
Author: Kieran Campbell, 6 St Ultan’s, Laytown, Co. Meath.
Site type: Urban post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 601349m, N 714985m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.185326, -7.979805
Test-trenches were excavated on a 65m by 20m development site comprising two long garden plots at the rear of existing dwellings on the east side of Main Street, Banagher, c. 100m south-east of the Market Square (Curraghavarna and Portavolla). There was a difference in level of c. 0.3m between the two gardens, reflecting the natural north-west-facing slope in the ground.
Eight test-trenches revealed a uniform stratigraphy of old garden soil over natural subsoil, with no archaeological features or deposits observed. The few finds of crockery and glass were of late 19th- and 20th-century date. The exception was a sherd from a large post-medieval earthenware bowl with a date range of 17th- to early 19th-century. The sherd, of sandy fabric with an internal pale-green glaze, is different from the ware produced in the pottery kiln in nearby Church Street, excavated by the writer in 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1379, 04E0854), but is probably also of Irish origin.
