County: Tyrone Site name: Ranfurly House, Castle Hill, Dungannon
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/10/139
Author: Johanna Vuolteenaho, ADS Ltd, Unit 6, 21 Old Channel Road, Belfast, BT3 9DE.
Site type: Urban
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 679734m, N 862498m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.504640, -6.768900
The proposed development takes the form of an extension to the rear of Ranfurly House into the rear walled terraced garden.
Located within the historic settlement area of Dungannon, Ranfurly House is the former Northern Bank (HB 13/20/009), which dates from around 1855 and is a two-storey structure built in an Italianate style to the designs of the architects Lanyon and Lynn. NIEA: Historic Buildings awarded Ranfurly House Grade B+ Listed protected status in 1977. Situated as it is in the north-east end of Market Square, it lies immediately adjacent to Castle Hill. Castle Hill has been awarded a Scheduled protected status and is located in an area of high archaeological importance as defined by NIEA.
The monitoring and preceding evaluations undertaken by ADS in 2008 showed that stratified archaeological deposits, features and structures survive across the terraced garden area of the site (Excavations 2008, No. 1197, AE/08/148).
In this phase of works, the excavation of fourteen engineering test-pits was monitored across the site. In addition, the excavation of two geotechnical boreholes was monitored.
The previous evaluations in the area suggested that archaeological features, such as defensive ditches, might survive in the lower areas, beyond the higher terrace. Monitoring of the engineering test-pits have shown that underground structures, pre-dating Ranfurly House, are also present in the lower area.
