County: Roscommon Site name: Glenballythomas
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RO022-057---- Licence number: 23E0921
Author: Eoin Halpin
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 580281m, N 782116m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.788236, -8.299243
It is proposed to apply for full planning permission to construct an extension to the existing house, with domestic garage, sewage treatment system with percolation area, and all ancillary site development works, at Glenballythomas, near Tulsk, Co Roscommon.
The proximity of a known archaeological site, RO022-057048-, and the fact that the subject site partially lies within with zone of notification associated with this site and the wider zone associated with the Rathcroghan complex RO022-057----, led the developer to seek a pre-planning meeting with the Roscommon planning office, where it was agreed that the proposal would require an archaeological site assessment with testing.
A series of four test trenches were opened across the proposed development area, positioned to cover the planned extension to the house and new sewage pipeline and percolation area. The only features of potential interest uncovered were
readily interpreted as plough furrows and their form would suggest that they are relatively recent in origin and as a consequence nothing of archaeological significance was recorded in the testing.
The fact that nothing was uncovered in the testing, that the proposed development is an extension to an existing house, that the extension is of a similar form and scale to that already in existence and, finally, that the proposed development is located on the periphery of the Rathcroghan zone of archaeological potential, some 1.5km from Rathcroghan Mound and is surrounded by a screen of mature hedgerow, which will be further planted up as part of the proposed landscaping proposals for the site, means that archaeological impacts both direct and indirect will be slight to negligible.
AHC Ltd 36 Ballywillwill Road, Castlewellan Co Down BT31 9LF
