County: Louth Site name: Ballymascanlan, Dundalk
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LH004-073 Licence number: 16E0289
Author: Antoine Giacometti
Site type: Adjacent to ringfort
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 707476m, N 810907m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.036134, -6.359255
A programme of archaeological testing and geophysical survey was carried out for a proposed house adjacent to (south of) LH004-073 (‘enclosure’). Based on cartographic analysis, site inspection and research in the RMP Files of the NMS, the monument appears to have been appropriated as a tree-planted demesne landscape feature in the c. 19th century. A possible structure was built on top of it and a house was built adjacent to it, on the proposed development site (the house has since been demolished). A programme of geophysical survey by Joanna Leigh (16R0015) did not identify an outer enclosure or souterrain extending into the proposed development site.
Six test trenches were excavated directly south of the enclosure, in order to (a) assess the potential archaeological features identified during the geophysical survey, (b) assess the potential for an external ditch enclosure surrounding the ringfort missed by the geophysical survey, and (c) assess the presence of archaeological material associated with the ringfort, in particular corn-drying kilns and associated external enclosures/annexes, and souterrains, both of which frequently occur outside ringforts.
No evidence for significant early medieval activity extending out from the ringfort and into the proposed development site was identified. One possible feature of archaeological interest was identified. This is a sterile agricultural linear ditch extending north-west/south-east from the ringfort. It may have formed part of a field system surrounding the ringfort in the early medieval period. It may equally have formed part of a plot/garden/field boundary during the modern period and be associated with the 19th-century structure directly to the north. This latter interpretation is supported by the orientation of the ditch, which matches the modern road, and with the southerly extent of the feature on the geophysical survey, which correlates with the extent of the majority of the modern spread and the location of the modern house. Nevertheless, the ditch shape and fills did not match the other post-medieval features and the presence of early medieval field systems around a ringfort would be expected, as these were foci of rural settlement. This feature will be impacted upon by the proposed development and further investigation was recommended, as well as monitoring of all groundworks and detailed recording of the ringfort .
Archaeology Plan, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2
