2012:156 - Ardglass, Down

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Down Site name: Ardglass

Sites and Monuments Record No.: DOW045-024 Licence number: AE/12/19

Author: Sarah Gormley

Site type: Monitoring

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 755748m, N 837284m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.260637, -5.609312

Monitoring was undertaken in advance of the construction of an extension to King’s Castle Nursing Home in Ardglass, on the south-east coast of County Down. A number of tower-houses survive extant within the small harbour town and King’s Castle Nursing Home is on the site of (and indeed may incorporate) a tower-house. Mechanical excavation of the footprint of the extension, located to the west of the present nursing home, was monitored in two areas measuring 10m x 15m and 15m x 20m. No features or finds of an archaeological nature were encountered during the monitoring. It seems that the development area may have been levelled and cleared in the recent past, with the naturally sloping ground in this area being reduced to create a level garden.

Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast