The Archaeological Literature on County Louth

Thomas Wright's Louthiana (1748)[*1] represents the earliest example of a county survey of archaeological remains. The book contains 74 fine copperplate sketches and line-drawings of ancient field monuments, most of them being the earliest accurate drawings of these places. It was first published in 1748, was reprinted in 1758, and was reissued in AD 2000.

In the modern era, Louth was chosen as the first region to be studied when the Office of Public established the 'Archaeological Survey of Ireland' in 1963. Its layered approach to archaeological recording commences with a 'desk survey' of each county, followed by preliminary inventories of the monuments and is capped off by 'detailed' archaeological studies in which all major monuments are subjected to instrument and photographic surveys. This has resulted in a fine suite of publications devoted to Louth's archaeology. Thus, it was the first county in the Republic of Ireland to have had a Sites & Monuments Record (Buckley 1984), published. This was quickly followed by the first in the ongoing series of Archaeological Inventories (Buckley 1986). Finally, in 1991, an Archaeological Survey of the county was appeared (Buckley and Sweetman 1991). With its publication, Louth became only the second county in Ireland after Down to have its major monuments presented for public scrutiny via detailed instrument survey and photographic recording.

Wedged between Louthiana and the work of the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, are a series of articles entitled 'Louthiana: ancient and modern' which were published between 1905 and 1911. These appeared in the early issues of the Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society. Not only do they honour Thomas Wright's achievement in Louthiana, they are also insightful as to the fate of many of the monuments in the intervening century and a half. For time and the needs of human communities have taken their toll: of the 53 monuments illustrated in Louthiana, 14 have since been leveled or demolished.

[*1] For details on Thomas Wright see http://www.dur.ac.uk/m.d.eddy/HoSinDurhamWright.html