County: Meath Site name: Colp West, Drogheda
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 18E0597
Author: Liam Coen c/o Archer Heritage Planning
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 712135m, N 774578m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.708830, -6.301442
A total of twenty trenches (2980m) and two 5m x 5m areas centred on geophysical anomalies were mechanically excavated across the site. Another 5m x 5m originally proposed was abandoned during excavation due to site conditions. The trenches were targeted to assess the general potential of the location of the proposed development as well as anomalies highlighted in a geophysical survey undertaken in the site, Detection licence no. 18R0181. Excavation proceeded in level spits of 0.2m. Topsoil was quite uniform; 0.25-0.4m in depth across the area, subsoil was compact orangey-brown boulder clay. The main Dublin-Dundalk gas pipeline runs through the north-eastern corner of the subject area. A single area of interest was identified.
In Trench #10, a shallow (0.17m deep x 0.7m wide) east-west running ditch, F.1, contained mid-brown stoney silty clay with a single piece of struck flint recovered. The ditch, F.1, appears to correspond to Feature A in Geophysical Survey 18R0181 and is along the same alignment of anomaly #3, identified in an earlier geophysical survey by Target (Detection licence 18R0011).
Archer Heritage Planning, 8 Beat Centre, Stephenstown, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.
