County: Monaghan Site name: FARNEY STREET, CARRICKMACROSS
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 07E0356
Author: Kieran Campbell, 6 St Ultans, Laytown, Drogheda.
Site type: Urban, post-medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 684171m, N 803575m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.974598, -6.716946
The development consisted of the construction of an extension to a house and a new detached garage on a short laneway off the south side of Farney Street, 80m from its junction with Main Street. The house is immediately east of the site of Essex Castle (MO031–034), constructed in the early 17th century and demolished during the Williamite wars, a site now occupied by the St Louis’ Convent School. Unlike certain other Plantation-era towns, Carrickmacross is not designated a monument in its own right.
Five trenches revealed garden soil, 0.7m deep, on the site for the garage, and demolition rubble and stony clay deposits under the tarmac yard beside the house, where natural subsoil, light-brown clay, varied in depth from 0.2m to 0.5m. Two sherds of slipware were retained; one is a rim sherd of a red earthenware dish with marbled slip and a scalloped edge. Both sherds are of 19th-century date and Irish manufacture, a possible source being the industry at Lisgoa, near Glaslough.
