2025:300 - Ballyconboy, Roscommon

An application was made for full planning permission to construct a new dwelling house, install new waste water treatment system and percolation area together with all associated site works at Ballyconboy Td., Ballinagare, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon,

In a letter from Roscommon County Council of 12 August 2024, requesting further information, the planners stated the given the sensitive location of the proposed development set amongst the rich archaeological landscape of Rathcroghan (RO022-056—-), the developer was required to engage the services of a suitably qualified archaeologist to carry out an archaeological assessment of the development site.

Whilst there are no known sites from within the redline boundary of the development site, the fact that it lies within the environs of the wider archaeological landscapes associated with Rathcroghan means that some as yet undiscovered archaeological features and or deposits may extend into the area of the site.

It was therefore proposed to test the full redline extent of the development, via 3 machine-dug test trenches, each some 50m long spaced across the site. Fieldwork took place on 18 February 2025. Topsoil was on average 300mm deep, with evidence for water logging in the central northern half of the area. Subsoil consisted of glacial till, a yellow-brown compacted loam clay, in which a series of plough furrows were noted, along with a linear service line containing a plastic water pipe.

Nothing of archaeological interest was uncovered in the assessment.