County: Armagh Site name: Carrickbroad Road
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: AE-19-201
Author: Eoin Halpin
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 705590m, N 814779m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.071303, -6.386687
It was proposed to construct a new domestic single-story dwelling, a new access and associated services on a site 150m west of the junction of Killnasaggart Road and Carrickbroad Road, Jonesborough, Newry.
There was one known site of archaeological interest in the near vicinity, the remains of the State Care monument Moyry Castle (ARM032:005), located on higher ground some 150m to the south-east of the proposal. This site was not directly affected by the proposal and visual impacts from the development were considered to be negligible.
However the site was located within the wider environs of Moyry Pass, also know and the Gap of the North, which was the major routeway historically between north Leinster and South Ulster and around which many battles were fought, most notably an offensive by Edward the Bruce in 1315 and the Battle of Moyry Pass in 1600. It was possible that some artefactual evidence might have survived on the development site associated with these military engagements.
A two-stage mitigation strategy was agreed; the first phase involved a detailed metal detector survey, followed by Phase Two, archaeological testing which involved seven 1.5m-wide machine-dug trenches of varying lengths across the entire footprint of the development site. The upcast from the excavations was further metal detected for significant finds.
Nothing of archaeological significance was noted in either the metal detector survey or the archaeological test trenching. The testing suggested that topsoil got gradually deeper from west to east in response to the general west to east downward slope, with the subsoil becoming gradually more gleyed.
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