2008:857 - Proleek 1, Louth

Louth County Council, the Roads Service NI (Department for Regional Development) and the National Roads Authority are currently proposing a road scheme, the A1/N1 Newry–Dundalk road. The route consists of 14.2km of 2-lane dual carriageway with 5.7km of associated link roads from Cloghoge roundabout, south of Newry, to the Ballymascanlan interchange, north of Dundalk. The proposed route was tested for archaeological and historic remains during Phase 1 of the project, after which this site was determined eligible for further archaeological excavations.
Provisionally Site 113 was identified as ‘an extensive spread of charcoal-enriched black silt and burnt stone’. This measured up to 33m (north to south) by 15m and was interpreted as ‘evidence for a large fulacht fiadh, or burnt mound with evidence for additional or satellite burnt mounds within Field 9’.
Recent excavations have revealed that, although burnt-mound material was present at the site, along with associated pits and a possible well, only secondary traces of burnt mounds remained. This was probably due to later agricultural activity in the 19th century when the ground was levelled, drained and ploughed. This probably occurred at a time when land pressure increased.
No troughs or hearths, feature types often associated with burnt mounds, were found during the course of the excavation, however a subcircular unlined well dug to a natural spring would attest to the possibility that the burnt-mound material found on the site are the remains of a fulacht fiadh. It is thought that the material found may be the truncated remains, with material continuing under the western baulk towards the Ballymascanlan Stream, of three burnt mounds, probably dating to the Bronze Age.
It is hoped that charcoal samples taken from the burnt-mound material will firmly establish the date of the archaeological activity found on the site.

Editor’s note: This report arrived too late for inclusion in the bulletin for 2005, when the work took place.