County: Armagh Site name: 71 Seagoe Road, Portadown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/10/043
Author: Jonathan Barkley, Northern Archaeological Consulancy Ltd, 638 Springfield Road, Belfast, BT12 7DY.
Site type: Early medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 702069m, N 855300m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.435982, -6.426658
Excavations at Seagoe Road uncovered evidence for early medieval settlement in the form of a small penannular structure and a segment of a ditch.
The structure was 9.14m in diameter and comprised a single slot-trench with an entrance to the west. The presence of several stake-holes adjacent to the slot, and a central post, indicated that the structure was both walled and roofed. Charred cereal recovered from the fill of the wall slot produced a date of cal. ad 670–733. A single pit, believed to have been used for the production of charcoal, lay between the entrance to the structure and the ditch.
The ditch measured 1.74m wide and 0.7m deep and lay to the west of the structure. One hundred and twenty-four sherds of souterrain ware, iron slag and charred cereal grains were recovered from the fills of the ditch; the charred cereal grains returned a date of cal. ad 660–771.
