2026:070 - Upper Darkley Road, Aughnagurgan, Armagh
County: Armagh
Site name: Upper Darkley Road, Aughnagurgan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: ARM024:001 and ARM024:002
Licence number: AE/2025/089
Author: Eoin Halpin
Author/Organisation Address: AHC Ltd, 36 Ballywillwill Road, Castlewellan, Co Down. BT31 9LF
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 686877m, N 828587m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.198838, -6.668537
The proposed development was located in Aughnagurgan Townland, off Upper Darkley Road, some 2.5 km south of the village of Darkley, in Co. Armagh at NGR H 86930 28564 and consisted of the replacement of the existing two-story dwelling with a two-story dwelling on the same footprint. There are two megalithic tombs located to the northeast and east of the proposed development, the closest, the ‘Giant’s Grave’ ARM024:001, located some 35m away and the other, the ‘Dolmen’ ARM024:002, located at some 95m. While there would be no direct impacts on these or indeed any
other known sites of cultural heritage interest, there would be impacts on their setting.
The sites themselves are deemed to be of a high asset value, confirmed by their scheduled status, however, due to the fact that the proposed development was to take the form of a replacement dwelling the magnitude of change to the setting was deemed to be low and with the proposed augmentation of the existing eastern site boundary with native hedge and tree species, over time this change was deemed to become negligible. It was therefore considered that the impact on the setting of both of the megalithic tombs would initially be moderate to minor becoming minor over time.
Due to the importance of the area in prehistory as exemplified by the presence of the two megalithic tombs a phase of pre-demolition licensed archaeological testing of the foundation trenches and service line was recommended. This took place on 2 April 2026.
The pre-assessment site visit, which suggested that the original construction of the farmhouse and associated outbuildings had involved excavating a scarp into the side of the natural hillslope to create a level platform on which to build, was born out by the archaeological testing. In all of the three trenches, modern layers lay directly on either shattered bedrock or glacial till, without any intervening deposits. This clearly showed that the construction of the farmhouse complex had entirely removed all potential archaeological deposits from the area.