2025:338 - TIRKEENAN, Monaghan Town, Monaghan

The proposed development site is located on a 0.69 ha site at the south end of Monaghan Town and outside of the Zone of Notification for the historic town of Monaghan. The site comprised almost entirely of modern built-up ground consisting of material imported during the construction of a previous car park to stabilise the boggy subsoil. Two distinct layers of modern rubble were identified. The upper layer (average depth 1.1–1.4m) consisted primarily of gravel, hardcore, stone, and sand. The lower layer comprised gravel, hardcore, and sand with inclusions of concrete, wood, textile, plastic, red brick, steel, mortar, and stone. These deposits, considered modern waste material, had a combined depth of c.1.8m. Beneath them lay a natural peat layer, the depth of which fluctuated, but was deepest around the centre of an attenuation trench at 0.8m and averaged about 0.5m elsewhere along the trench. This layer comprised of a very soft, humic, spongy, dark brown-black peat. The development formation level rarely reached the natural peat layers. In any instances where they were, and visibility was satisfactory, there was no evidence of any features, finds or deposits of archaeological interest.