County: Armagh Site name: Grange Lower
Sites and Monuments Record No.: ARM009–003 Licence number: AE/06/136
Author: Naomi Carver, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT7 1NN.
Site type: Bronze Age or Early Christian activity
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 695011m, N 854730m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.432231, -6.535602
An archaeological evaluation was carried out at a site adjacent to 37 Cushenny Road, Grange Lower, Co. Armagh, in response to a planning application for a new dwelling. The evaluation was requested due to the existence of the remains of an enclosure within the application area. The enclosure is marked on the second-edition 6-inch OS map as ‘site of fort’ but the site is not recorded in the Ordnance Survey Memoir for the area. The enclosure survives on the ground as a number of ill-defined low banks and commands excellent views from the south-east to the north-west.
The evaluation was comprised of two phases. Phase I consisted of three mechanically excavated test-trenches. The discovery in one of these trenches of a stone-filled pit containing a sherd of coarse pottery and a piece of struck flint prompted Phase II work, which consisted of topsoil-stripping of a wider area (c. 28m by 16m in size).
The upper deposits of topsoil and cultivation soil were found to seal at least thirteen features which were cut into the natural subsoil. Eight of the features were further investigated, either by full excavation if time permitted, or by the excavation of small cuttings across them. The features comprised: two linear features, one curvilinear feature, four pits or possible pits and a possible post-hole. The cut features were shallow (each was around 0.2m deep) and contained similar fills of silty clay. The five features which were not investigated during the evaluation were possibly post-holes or pits.
It was not possible to relate the features stratigraphically to each other and, although they may form part of a small structure, this will only become apparent following more thorough investigation of the site. The relationship of the excavated features to the enclosure is also uncertain. The few finds from the features consisted of a small number of sherds of coarse pottery and several small pieces of struck flint. Unfortunately none of the finds were diagnostic, although the fabric of the pottery suggests that it may date to the Bronze Age. It is hoped that there is the opportunity to carry out further work at the site, with the aim of obtaining datable material from the features within the evaluation area and of investigating their relationship to the enclosure.
