County: Louth Site name: Haynestown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 14E0027
Author: Gill McLoughlin
Site type: Late Neolithic pits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 704130m, N 802885m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.964762, -6.413058
Testing was carried out in February 2014 in response to a planning condition (ref. 09/230) for a proposed above ground installation (AGI) at Haynestown, Co. Louth. The site is located approximately 4km south of Dundalk, 3.3km west of Blackrock, Co. Louth and is bounded to the west by Mullagharlin road and to the south by Marlbog road. Testing identified a number of pits/post-holes thought to represent a prehistoric structure and the site was excavated in May 2014. The works were carried out on behalf of RPS for Bord Gais Networks.
Excavation revealed two small clusters of pits and two larger outlying pits. Finds included burnt and unburnt flint, including a number of scrapers and blades, burnt bone, fragments of two small undecorated Grooved Ware bowls and two hammer-stones. The remains indicate a domestic setting where flint tools were being produced, however there was no evidence of a structure at the site. Specialist analysis of the lithics and pottery recovered from the excavation suggested activity dating to the late Neolithic period. This was supported by radiocarbon dating of a charred hazelnut shell fragment which returned a date range of 4093+/-33 BP (UBA 26515), calibrated to 2862-2498 BC (2 sigma). It is likely that the excavated remains represent peripheral activity associated with a settlement site located outside of the current development footprint.
Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy, Lynwood House, Ballinteer Road, Dublin 16
