County: Louth Site name: DEERPARK (Area 10)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LH006–106 Licence number: 05E1274
Author: Damien Finn, Windsor House
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 700347m, N 809776m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.027411, -6.468406
Testing was conducted at Area 10 in advance of construction works on the south–north gas pipeline on 6 January 2006. Testing was based on the results of the EIS carried out in 2004. Area 10 is located in Deerpark townland, Co. Louth. Two trenches measuring 30m by 1.6m were excavated using a mechanical excavator fitted with a 1.6m-wide ditching bucket. Area 10 is described in the RMP as a ‘circular, flat-topped mound enclosing a limekiln whose mouth is in the south side of the mound and a circular depression in the centre of the summit of the mound. Extending southeast from the mound is a semicircular ramp or remains of a rath.’
A linear feature was uncovered in Trench 1. A small parallel trench was excavated parallel to Trench 1 in order to further investigate this feature. It appeared to be non-archaeological and may possibly be a field boundary ditch. A second feature was noted in this trench, a sub-linear feature that appeared to be cut by the linear feature. It contained charcoal and bone (possibly animal) and measured 1m by 0.4m. No artefacts were recovered and there did not appear to be any other features associated with it. Nothing of archaeological significance was found in Trench 2.
11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
