Backwood

Area

66,476 m² (6.65 ha, 16.43 acres)

Buildings

No building touches it.

Zoning

No zone of a development plan covers it in the national zoning. Outside zoned towns and villages, the county development plan's rural policies apply.

Townland

Backwood

Planning applications on this parcel

• 21 Jun 2018Conditional

  A TWO STOREY DOMESTIC RESIDENCE, GARAGE AND INSTALL AN APPROVED WASTEWATER TREATMENT SYSTEM WITH PERCOLATION AREA AND ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS

  Permission, 2 homes · Offaly County Council, 18271

Source: National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Applicants are not shown.

Designated sites

No designated site (Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area, Natural Heritage Area or proposed one) touches this parcel.

Recorded monuments around it

This parcel is in the zone of notification of 3 recorded monuments.

• OF026-033 Church
  Description

  Poorly preserved graveyard (OF026-033001-) with no evidence of a church however the wall footings of a building are visible in the N sector of the graveyard. This building is not a church because it is orientated on a N-S axis. The earliest datable gravestone dates to 1795. No other features visible. Test excavation that was undertaken by Dominic Delany under licence no. 01E0431 on the site of a proposed new dwelling at Sranure, Co. Offaly, on 28 May 2001 revealed remains of possible ecclesiastical enclosure (OF026-033002-). The development site lies immediately east of a church site (OF026-033----) and graveyard (OF026-033001-) and there is a holy well (OF026-034----) in the field to the north. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

• OF026-033001 Graveyard
  Description

  Poorly preserved graveyard with no evidence of a church (OF026-033001-) however the wall footings of a building are visible in the N sector of the graveyard. This building is not a church because it is orientated on a N-S axis. The earliest datable gravestone dates to 1795. No other features visible. This burial ground is indicated on the first edition of the OS 6-inch map as 'Killeen Grave Yard'. Test excavation that was undertaken by Dominic Delany under licence no. 01E0431 on the site of a proposed new dwelling at Sranure, Co. Offaly, on 28 May 2001 revealed remains of possible ecclesiastical enclosure (OF026-033002-). The development site lies immediately east of a church site (OF026-033----) and graveyard (OF026-033001-) and there is a holy well (OF026-034----) in the field to the north. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

• OF026-033002 Ecclesiastical enclosure
  Description

  Test excavation was undertaken by Dominic Delany under licence no. 01E0431 on the site of a proposed new dwelling at Sranure, Co. Offaly, on 28 May 2001. The development site lies immediately east of a church site (OF026-033----) and graveyard (OF026-033001-) and there is a holy well (OF026-034----) in the field to the north. The church is named 'Temple Kieran' on OS 6-inch maps and its site is indicated east of centre in the large rectangular graveyard. A grass-covered rubble mound now marks the church site. Testing comprised the mechanical excavation of four trenches, extending east-west across the development site. No features were encountered in Trenches 1, 2 and 4, but two possible archaeological features were discovered in Trench 3. Feature 1 was a linear/curvilinear round-bottomed ditch, 2.55m wide and 0.9m deep, oriented north-east/south-west. The ditch fills were similar to the topsoil although not as compacted and slightly darker in colour. The upper fill was 0.8m thick and at its base there was a loose stone fill containing frequent lumps of iron slag, some of which were quite large and bowl-shaped. This fill also yielded some animal bone (cattle, pig jaw) and an iron nail. The lower fill was slightly darker as it was mixed with the orange silty sand subsoil. No finds were recovered from this fill. Feature 2 was a linear cut, 1.25m wide and 0.25m deep, also orientated north-east/south-west but not running parallel to the ditch feature. The upper fill was compact dark brown sandy silt containing pebbles, small stones, charcoal and occasional pieces of red burnt clay. It overlay a deposit of loose white/yellow ash containing some charcoal, and this overlay a more compacted red/orange sandy ash containing some small stones and patches of red burnt clay. Three small fragments of burnt sheep/goat bone and a medieval potsherd were found in the upper fill. No finds were recovered from the underlying ash deposits. The ditch feature discovered in Trench 3 is probably part of an enclosure element associated with the ecclesiastical site at Sranure. The extent of the ditch is unknown as it was not encountered in Trench 2, which was 15m to the south of Trench 3, nor was it encountered in Trench 4, which was 35m to the north. The discovery of significant quantities of iron slag in the ditch clearly indicates that iron-smelting was carried out in the vicinity. The distinctive bowl-shaped profile of some of the iron slag suggests that these are furnace bottoms. Iron-working was common on Early Christian sites, and it is known that smelting often took place in the sheltered locations conveniently provided by ditches. This supports the suggestion that the ditch feature is part of an ecclesiastical enclosure but further testing would be required to resolve this matter. The origin of the nearby linear feature is unknown but the presence of charcoal, burnt clay and ash indicates intensive burning and suggests that it may be associated with the iron-smelting. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

Architectural heritage

No building of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage stands on this parcel.

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. Buildings: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Works at or in relation to a recorded monument need two months' written notice to the National Monuments Service (National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, section 12).

Ground and risks

Radon

About 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

Susceptibility low, on the 1:50,000 map.

Terrain model

No LiDAR survey of the Office of Public Works covers the centre of this parcel.

Flooding

The flood maps of the Office of Public Works: floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency; Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland; both CC BY 4.0. LiDAR: contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & the Office of Public Works) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Download this parcel: DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its neighbours and buildings, for a drawing program; GeoJSON, in WGS 84, for a map; KML, for Google Earth.

Registered freehold land, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. A parcel is the land of a title, not an address. The owner's name is in the Land Registry of Tailte Éireann: a copy of the folio can be ordered on landdirect.ie, for a fee.