2024:397 - Slieve Croob telecom, Down

Northern Ireland Water (NIW) have purchased a derelict telecommunications site close to the summit of Slieve Croob. There is an existing access road, where several operational telecommunication facilities also exist in close proximity to the subject site. The site contained two derelict buildings, a telecommunications tower, three retaining walls, a large hard standing area, boundary fencing and a vehicular access gate. NIW have been granted permission to redevelop the site, largely within the existing site boundary, to provide a safe, secure and functional telecommunications facility, part of which was a new cable trench from an existing pole, located 95m to the west of the compound.
The cairn DOW036:036 lies nearby to the east, with the source of the River Lagan 550m to the northwest. The general area is also the site of the annual Baleberry Sunday gathering. The proposal within the compound was deemed to have either negligible or slightly positive impacts, based on the fact that the development, largely within the bounds of the present site, will reduce the buildings on site from two to one and the proposed new mast will be lower and at a reduced scale to that currently on site. However the digging of the new cable trench, due to run to the southwest of the cairn site, could have impacted on subsoil deposits, should they be present.
The works on the cable trench and ground reduction within the compound were monitored under license AE/23/019 between August and November 2023. Nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered.
Monitoring of the new perimeter fence took place under license AE/24/054 between April and May 2024. The new fence posts utilised the post-holes from the old fence line, with the result that disturbance to virgin ground was kept to a minimum.
Nothing of archaeological significance was uncovered.