Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Industrial site
Balgatheran, County Louth, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Balgatheran
- County
- Louth
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 53.74872, -6.40966
- SMR number
- LH021-065003-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1636 "Vltoniae Orientalis Pars" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Discovered prior to road construction (Excavation Licence No. 00E0477). An area measuring c. 4800sq m was excavated (Chapple 2002, 210-12). A variety of different structures and phases of activity were identified. Two large boundary ditches (LH021-065001- and LH021-065002-), an industrial site (LH021-065003-), a hut site (LH021-065004-) and a kiln (LH021-065005-) date to the Early Christian period. Three structures (LH021-065006-, LH021-065007- and LH021-065008-) date to the Medieval period.
This industrial site (LH021-065003-) was located just S of two substantial ditches (LH021-065001- and LH021-065002-). Nine postholes represented a roughly rectangular structure (7.37m x 2.1m). One of the postholes produced some iron slag and fragments of worked iron. Two possible entrances were noted along with an internal hearth. Large quantities of charcoal and ash were revealed on the floor. Some fifteen stakeholes on the SW side of the structure may have represented a wall of post and wattle construction. On the SE side a gravel surface was uncovered. (Chapple 2002, 211)
Compiled by: Claire Breen
Date of upload: 20 July 2012
References
Chapple, R. 2002 Balgatheran 1. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2000: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 210-2 (No. 638). Bray. Wordwell.
Nearby in the register
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.