2026:235 - The Drumlins, Bailieborough Rd, Rahardrum, Virginia, Cavan
County: Cavan
Site name: The Drumlins, Bailieborough Rd, Rahardrum, Virginia
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CV039-074
Licence number: 26E0322
Author: Maeve Mc Cormick
Author/Organisation Address: Archer Heritage Planning, Unit 1, Tenure Business Park, Co Louth A92 K2VF
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 660812m, N 788100m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.838826, -7.076032
An archaeological impact assessment was undertaken on the site of a proposed housing development located at the northern outskirts of Virginia, Co. Cavan. The site is currently occupied by the remains of a partially-constructed extension to The Drumlins housing estate. A desktop assessment undertaken in August 2025 recommended further assessment in the form of test excavation. Test excavation was undertaken on 18 May 2026 in dry sunny conditions.
Eight trenches, totalling 288 linear meters, were excavated across the site. Topsoil across the site varied in depth depending on the extent of previous groundworks. Test excavation across available areas of the site including the location of Ringfort CV039-074 revealed no evidence for the continued survival of buried archaeological sites or features across the wider site. Despite ensuring that Trenches 1–3 extended across the original locations of earthworks associated with this monument, no surviving portions of the ringfort were identified. This suggests that the original monument morphology may have taken the form of a ‘platform ringfort’, ‘raised rath’ or ‘cashel’ where no earth-cut ditches were constructed. Consequently, levelling of the ringfort in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century removed all traces of the monument.
The townland boundary between Rahardrum and Aghnadrung passes along the north-eastern boundary of the site. A survey of the boundary found it to comprise of a ditch with a bank running along the north-east side. It was c.5m wide and c.1.5m deep in the most natural area. Further south a gravel roadway associated with the construction works runs next to it creating a steep drop into the ditch of c.3m. The boundary is currently covered in dense native hedgerow comprising ash and hawthorn with brambles, grass and horsetail as ground covering. Nothing of archaeological significance was noted during the townland boundary survey.
No archaeological sites, features or finds were discovered during works.