2007:1708 - Oldtown, Tipperary

An impact assessment was required as part of further information regarding a proposed development of agricultural buildings and ancillary services on a greenfield site at Oldtown, Templemore. The site is part of a deserted settlement, and in the immediate vicinity the site of a castle is also recorded, although no earthworks are visible at ground level for either site.
Six roughly east–west-orientated parallel test-trenches were mechanically excavated across the footprint of the proposed development on 14 July 2007. These trenches averaged 32m long, and generally extended from higher ground in the west to lower-lying wetter ground in the east. The ground at the south-eastern limit was heavily disturbed from agricultural machinery tracks traversing the site in previous winters. Three shallow deposits of burnt stone (resembling burnt-mound-type deposits and no more than 0.1m deep) were identified directly below the thin sod in Trenches 1 and 2, and extending beyond the limits of the test-trenches. Box-sections were hand-dug through these deposits, but, due to the level of disturbance in both trenches, their archaeological significance could not conclusively be proven. These deposits could be the result of vegetation clearance and burning on the site by the landowner in the early 1990s. A roughly north–south-orientated linear ditch (up to 1.63m wide and 0.6m deep) was also noted in Trenches 4–6, and hand-dug box-sections were excavated through this feature in the three Trenches. In Trench 6 the distal (and fused) end of a cow femur was identified towards the base of the section. Nothing else was recovered which might indicate modern dumping/burial of a farm animal or an archaeological date for the creation of this feature.
It was recommended that monitoring should be undertaken as part of the proposed development; this recommendation was approved by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. No further work has been conducted on this site to date.