County: Louth Site name: Seatown, Dundalk
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: Unlicensed Monitoring
Author: Deirdre Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit Ltd
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 705108m, N 807452m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.005587, -6.396584
Unlicensed archaeological monitoring was undertaken at 38 Seatown, Dundalk, Co. Louth. The site was located east of Saint Leonard’s Garden, which was once the site of St Leonard's priory and hospital. The latter dates from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, while the later Seatown
Cemetery was in use until 1896 (LH007-119036-). Further east stands ‘Seatown Tower’ (LH007-119021-),
which is all that remains of a Franciscan friary (St Francis Abbey). A cross slab (LH007-189----) was discovered to the south of the site.
Monitoring of all works, including ground reduction, excavation of foundation trenches and ducting, was conducted in September 2022. The foundation trenches measured 0.6m in width and were excavated to a depth of 1.5m. The rear of the property consisted of an imported nineteenth-century clay (C1), which consisted of compact, coarse mid-brown clay containing moderate inclusions of post-medieval/early modern chinaware sherds and glass bottle fragments. This layer measured 1.2m in thickness and lay above the natural light grey clay, gravel and stone (C2). All ground reduction extended to a depth of 0.22m to formation level only, within the imported compact mid-brown
clay.
No archaeological features or deposits were exposed or identified.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth
