County: Tipperary Site name: Cullenagh
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0269
Author: Máire Ní Loingsigh, Sheila Lane & Associates, Dean-rock Business Park, Togher, Cork.
Site type: Lady Landsdowne (19th-century paddle steamer)
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 569813m, N 673589m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.812435, -8.447774
Four test-trenches were mechanically excavated in a grassed over area in the north-west part of Derg Marina, Ballina, adjacent to wreckage in the water believed to be part of the stern of a 19th-century iron paddle steamer, Lady Landsdowne.
The line of a proposed new waterfront element/quay wall and that of the proposed buildings were tested.
Trenches were excavated to an average of 2m below current ground level (and to a maximum of 2.4m). The trenches were excavated to 0.25–1.15m below the level of the known wreckage, which is lying at a depth of 1.25m below current ground level. No archaeological features or artefacts were identified in three of the trenches.
A composite metal beam and a triangular piece of metal were identified at a level of 1.5m in Trench 3. The objects were assumed to be part of the wreckage of the Lady Landsdowne and were recorded and replaced in situ. No other evidence for the wreckage of the Lady Landsdowne was found.
Further testing by Rex Bangerter of ADCO in June 2008 (see No. 1084 above, 08E0379, 08D004) identified part of the hull of the vessel and established the length and orientation of the wreckage.
