County: Armagh Site name: Aghayalloge
Sites and Monuments Record No.: adj to ARM029:016 Licence number: AE/20/064
Author: Eoin M Halpin
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 705927m, N 820810m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.125405, -6.379430
The proposed development consisted of the erection of single domestic dwelling and associated services in the townland of Aghayalloge, some 5km south-west of Newry, in Co. Armagh. Access to the site is to be via a new access from the main road. The site, which extended to some 0.2ha, consisted of a roughly rectangular area within an improved agricultural field, with the site of the scheduled monument The Dane’s Cast (ARM029:016), a linear earthwork running to the north.
As the site was close to the east-west running line of the Dane’s Cast it was considered that there was an increased potential for buried archaeological remains to be uncovered during site works.
The site was tested via a series of five machine-dug test trenches. Four trenches were positioned to test the footprint of the proposed house and the new access route, with the final trench positioned to test the percolation area. The testing took place on 22 June 2020. Subsoil was noted to be a consistent yellow-brown gritty glacial till, which contained numerous naturally occurring rounded granite boulders. Overburden was likewise a consistent yellow-brown clay loam, which varied in depth between 0.3m and 0.5m.
Nothing of archaeological interest was noted in any of the test trenches.
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