County: Offaly Site name: Main Street, Banagher
Sites and Monuments Record No.: OF021–003 Licence number: 06E0346
Author: Kieran Campbell, 6 St Ultan’s, Laytown, Co. Meath.
Site type: Urban, post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 600859m, N 715501m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.189963, -7.987139
The development site is situated on the west side of Main Street, Banagher, c. 60m north of Market Square and adjoining the north wall of the graveyard of the late medieval St Rynagh’s Church. The graveyard is 2–3m higher than the level of the site and is separated from it by a retaining wall. Testing took place in November 2006 following demolition of the existing building, formerly a toyshop, which had the appearance of a 19th-century structure and was originally divided into three small houses. The new shop was to be built on the footprint of the old, with dimensions of 10.1m by 12m.
A series of test-pits and trenches excavated by mini-digger uncovered the surface of natural sand, which was nowhere deeper than 0.2m under a thin deposit of yellow/brown clay, with brick fragments below the concrete floor of the demolished shop.
