County: Monaghan Site name: Doohamlat
Sites and Monuments Record No.: H766203 Licence number: 06E1232
Author: Eoin Halpin, ADS Ltd, Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 676863m, N 820605m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.128735, -6.823995
The proposed development is for the construction of 50 detached and semi-detached houses and a crèche. There will be the normal associated access roads and service lines. The largely greenfield site is some 5ha in overall extent, sloping down from east to west towards the course of a disused millrace associated with corn and flax mills that were once located to the west of the site. The southern boundary of the site is delimited by the curving line of the remains of a millrace, with two sluices marked on the IG map surveyed in 2004. The remaining boundaries are defined by existing field fences. A deep steep-sided ditch divides the site roughly east–west. While there are no known archaeological sites within the development area, it is in an area of relatively high archaeological potential.
A total of 24 trenches were excavated within the confines of the development site by a machine fitted with a 1.8m-wide toothless bucket. Initially two long trenches were excavated. The first ran from the north-west corner of the site down to the junction of the development area and a small unnamed burn at the south-east. A second trench was opened from the corner of the development area to the mid-point of the south-eastern boundary of the site. Extending out from these two long trenches was a series of test-trenches excavated at 20m distances on alternate sides of the long trenches in a ‘herringbone’ pattern.
The stratigraphic sequence of the site was characterised by topsoil, up to 0.5m deep, immediately overlying undisturbed subsoil and bedrock. Nothing of archaeological interest was found.
