County: Louth Site name: Bridge Street, Ardee
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LH017-101, LH017-101001 Licence number: 23E0837
Author: Derek Gallagher, Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit Ltd
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 696144m, N 790380m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.853974, -6.538646
Archaeological monitoring was carried out at Ardee River Carpark, Bridge Street, Ardee, Co. Louth.
The archaeological monitoring of a slot trench identified that a wall is likely to be part of the Corn Mill building wall. This was located within the slot trench at the northern end and along the western side. This stone-built wall had a limestone mortar bonding it together. This was located under the existing upstanding boundary wall at the western side of the car park and was aligned north-south. The upstanding wall had a modern appearance, although it was built with stone it was constructed with a cement mortar.
It is likely that the wall exposed in the slot trench was originally part of the Corn Mill building identified on the 3rd edition Ordnance Survey (O.S.) 25-inch map (surveyed 1908 - published 1910). This wall extended 0.25m in width to the east from the upstanding car park wall which sits atop it. The Corn Mill building wall turned at a right angle to the east 10m from the northern end of the slot trench. The top of this east-west aligned wall section was just visible in the slot trench cutting. It had previously been cut by services to a depth of 0.95m below surface level. This wall may exit in some capacity under the car park orientated east-west.
The original services appeared to have removed parts of this wall and it is possible that more intact sections may yet remain in situ. In addition, other sections of the Corn Mill building may also survive below the current ground level. This should be taken into consideration in future works conducted in the car park area.
In summary, two sections of a wall forming a right angle were identified during the monitoring of works at the Bridge Road car park. These are likely to belong to a building marked as the Corn Mill building, as identified on the 3rd edition Ordnance Survey 25-inch map. A 10m length of the
north-south section of the wall was partially exposed and a 0.9m section of the east-west section of the wall was exposed, though at a reduced level. No archaeological finds were recovered.
The work is now complete, and no further mitigation is necessary.
Unit 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, County Louth. A92 DH99.
