County: Laois Site name: Aghmacart
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E0899
Author: Martin Doody, New Road, Portlaoise.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 632756m, N 674751m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.822730, -7.513998
Application for permission to erect a two-storey dwelling, septic tank and new well, to retain piers and a winged entrance at Aghmacart, Cullahill, Co. Laois, has been submitted to Laois County Council. The proposed development is located within the confines of LA034–019. A desk-based assessment was undertaken by Valerie J. Keeley Ltd in August 2006 which recommended that the site should be geophysically surveyed and that a trial excavation should take place on the footprint of the development.
A wide and generous boundary has been assigned to LA034–019 encompassing several archaeological sites as well as the proposed construction site.
An extensive area around the development site was surveyed using a magnetometry survey including all areas to be disturbed in the course of the house construction and in the access driveway. The percolation area in the north-east of the site was unsuitable for survey due to the presence of overhead electrical cables. The survey indicated the presence of a small number of isolated pits of possible archaeological origin; however, few if any of these were in the area of the proposed dwelling. A broad north-west/south-east-aligned linear anomaly transected the site to the north-east of the proposed dwelling and cut across the proposed driveway. Apart from these no other potentially archaeological features were identified by the survey.
A geophysical survey was undertaken followed by test-trenching. The geophysical survey indicated little of possible archaeological significance in the area of the dwelling but indicated a possible linear feature transecting the driveway at the north-eastern end of the site. Test-trenches were excavated on the footprint of the house and driveway using a mechanical digger. No trace of either the mill or the holy well were uncovered in the course of the trenching. Apart from the remains of cultivation furrows in Trenches 3 and 4, nothing of an archaeological nature was recorded. The linear anomaly identified in the course of the geophysical survey was found to be due to the presence of an underground earth cable.
