County: Tipperary Site name: Spafield
Sites and Monuments Record No.: TS061-071001- Licence number: 22E0084 and 22R0037
Author: Eoin Halpin
Site type: Urban greenfield
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 607693m, N 639668m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.508343, -7.886676
Following an appeal to An Bord Pleanála, permission was granted for the construction of 44 dwelling houses and associated site works. The proposed development consists of the construction of six four-bedroom end-of-terraced units and 38 three-bedroom semi-detached and terraced units, relocated vehicular access, landscaping, drainage, car parking, play areas and all ancillary site development works at Spafield, Cashel, County Tipperary.
The Bord, the Development Applications Unit and Daniel Noonan, the archaeologist who undertook the pre-development archaeological desktop assessment, all agreed to the requirement for archaeological works as part of the development programme.
An archaeological programme of pre-development testing was proposed and approved under license 22E0084. In addition, a metal detector survey was carried out under license 22R0037. The fieldwork was carried out on 1 April 2022 where a total of 12 cuttings were excavated, nine across the main development area and a further three smaller cuttings across the boundary wall running along the eastern side of the site. In the main body of the site nothing, apart from agricultural features, plough furrows and an east-west running ditch, was uncovered. The boundary wall had been significantly damaged in the recent past by the insertion of services, but survived well at its northern end.
All of the trenches and the excavated material were surveyed as part of the metal-detection works. The only item of note was a small ferrous lump recovered from the upper fill of the linear feature in Trench 9. The finds from the spoil were all clearly modern.
AHC Ltd 36 Ballywillwill Road, Castlewellan, Co. Down BT31 9LF
