County: Derry Site name: CRAIGADICK
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: N.F. Brannon, Historic Monuments Branch, DOE
Site type: Habitation site
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 685433m, N 900190m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.842280, -6.669913
Excavations near Maghera Old Church, County Derry.
Development proposals for the field lying adjacent to, and N of, Maghera Old Church prompted sampling excavations in late August - early September 1985. Superficially without archaeological content, it nevertheless appeared likely that the field lay within the precinct of the Early Christian and medieval settlement now represented solely by the church remains.
Pre-excavation enquiries found that numerous service lines crossed the field on a SW-NE axis, restricting the area available for excavation. Trenches were laid out parallel to the graveyard wall. Following removal of a thin topsoil every trench encountered demolition debris deriving from 19th-century terraced houses or a thin cobble over bedding soil which surfaced the courtyard. In most instances these deposits sealed the gravelly clay subsoil, but in places a thin stratum of brown clay, the sole suggestion of an archaeological layer, was located. It failed to yield any artefacts and no interpretation of its origin can be offered.
Three possible subsoil-cutting 'graves' were found, this interpretation based on their size, shape and E-W alignment, although none contained evidence of human burial remains which are presumed to have decayed. The narrowness of these 'graves' and the absence of coffin furniture suggests that they held simple inhumations of medieval or earlier date. The W end of the westernmost 'grave' had been cut by a shallow, sub-circular pit which contained a fragment of clay-pipe stem and a few butchered animal bones. None of these are accurately datable but it seems likely that the pit held a dump of post-17th-century refuse.
Two medieval potsherds, one a rim sherd of 'everted rim' cooking pottery, the other a body sherd of green-glazed earthenware, were found in topsoil contexts.
The results of these sampling excavations were therefore disappointing. While the three 'graves' suggest that the field lay within the consecrated area of the church, clearly it was not extensively used for burial or occupation.
