County: Down Site name: Market Road, Moneyscalp, Kilcoo
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DOW 043:069 Licence number: AE/18/107E
Author: Jonathan Barkley
Site type: Cashel and souterrain
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 731808m, N 834158m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.239299, -5.977871
All invasive works at the development were monitored under licence.
The south-west to centre of the proposed area once featured a roughly circular c.30m diameter cashel, little or any of which remains today. The cashel appears to have been entirely located within the south-western quadrant of the overall proposed development site; the southern half of the site will be developed.
An exposed stretch of souterrain lay in the south-west of the proposed development site, just north of but roughly on the same alignment as a remnant of a field boundary (low bank and several trees) on the west of the site. A section of it appears to have been thoroughly cleared out in the past. This is open and can be accessed by a north-facing gap with a fairly easy access down a short slope into the passage heading southwards. This passage seems a little taller than average and is easy to walk along. However, it terminates after just a few metres (it widens at that point) where the terminus wall includes an enormous stone.
During the monitored topsoil stripping to the east of this entrance, a linear stretch of stone-rich dark soil was exposed; measuring some 5m east to west by 1.9m. Around 2m to its north-east were two post-holes some 0.3m in diameter and 0.7m apart. Just over 1.2m to the south of the eastern linear extension of the souterrain and connected to it by a stretch of disturbed stone-rich darker soil was a large sub-rectangular area of dark soil measuring c. 2.8m by 3m, which appeared to be roofed by two very large flat stone slabs. Voids along the southern edge of these slabs indicated that there may be an intact chamber below.
The site was recorded and will be left preserved in-situ, the recommendation has been made that a development or vehicular access exclusion zone be placed around the archaeological remains, the remains are to be covered by a geotextile membrane, topsoil and then seeded with grass.
Northern Archaeological Consultancy, 638 Springfield Road, Belfast, BT12 7DY
