County: Down Site name: Market Road, Moneyscalp
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: AE/23/044
Author: Eoin Halpin
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 731687m, N 834096m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.238766, -5.979763
Full planning permission was granted for the development of lands 30m South East of No 14 Market Road, Co. Down (LA07/2022/0313/F), consisting of the construction of a domestic dwelling and garage, with associated access and services.
In their consideration of the application Historic Environment Division: Historic Monuments (HED: HM) were content that the proposal satisfied PPS 6 policy requirements, subject to conditions for the agreement and implementation of a developer-funded programme of archaeological works. This was to identify and record any archaeological remains in advance of new construction, or to provide for their preservation in situ, as per Policy BH 4 of PPS 6.
In response to HED, it was proposed to test the entire footprint of the development, including the house and garage site, access road, service lines and percolation area, via the machine excavation of four 1.8m wide test trenches. The westernmost trench to be 55m in length, with 45m, 40m and 30m long trenches running at 10m intervals to the east. The archaeological works took place on 20 May 2023.
Only two noteworthy features were uncovered, both modern in origin. The first was a service line containing a power cable, running east-west across the northern end of the area, laid down in 2018 as part of the building of the new dwelling house to the east of the site. The second feature was a localized area of modern disturbance at the north end of the site. Local knowledge recorded it as a by-product of the ground works associated with the construction of the adjacent dwelling house in 2018.
Nothing of archaeological interest was noted in the course of the assessment.
AHC Ltd 36 Ballywillwill Road, Castlewellan Co Down BT31 9LF
