County: Louth Site name: Kilsaran
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E1108
Author: David J. O’Connor, CRDS Ltd, Unit 4a, Dundrum Business Park, Dublin 14.
Site type: Medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 705814m, N 794134m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.885819, -6.390426
An assessment involving pre-development testing was undertaken at Kilsaran, Co. Louth. The proposed development is to consist of the demolition of existing structures and the construction of a two-storey extension to the existing office building and a separate house structure. The site assessment was carried out by a three-person team on 6 December 2007. The site is located beside Kilsaran graveyard (LH015–011), which has early medieval origins. The graveyard contains a ruined church and two original fonts of greenstone, recorded in the Archaeological Survey as having been removed from elsewhere to the graveyard.
The assessment comprised five test-trenches, two of which were located to the west of the site, with a further three close to the boundary of the graveyard. Archaeological deposits were exposed in Trenches 1 and 2 and consisted of the internal cut of a large, slightly curving ditch. As only one edge of the cut was located within the trenches, it can be speculated that it represents a large boundary enclosure. The ditch itself contained six to seven deposits, two of which were natural redeposited boulder clay. The ditch cut also contained stone debris, which was interpreted as backfill, due to the mixed nature of the fills surrounding the stones. No datable finds were recovered.
Trenches 3–5, located close the graveyard, contained modern demolition debris sitting on natural clays. Ground reduction in the last 50 years may have removed any surviving archaeological deposits.
