1992:007 - BLACKHILLS LOWER, Cavan

This site was located during work on a gas pipeline corridor. Initially 2 black, 1.3m wide, charcoal rich/stained linear features were uncovered. These later proved to be 2 gullies, one of which, (G1), ran east-west along the lie of the slope and the width of the corridor, while the other, (G2), ran off perpendicular to this for just over 9m before curving round to the east and running upslope before curving back round again to stop lm short of G1.

G1 ran the width of the exposed corridor, just under 15m, and small scale trial trenching beyond the corridor, (but still within that land currently owned by Bord Gáis Éireann), confirmed that it continued to run for at least another 5m, curving slightly to the south as it ran. G2 was roughly C-shaped enclosing an area of 13.2m x 10.6m. It ran north- south, with both terminals facing south. It lay north of G1 and stopped short of it by 0.5m-lm.

Apart from the gullies, 3 pits were noted, 1 to the north of G2, the other 2 very close together just west of G2 and north of G1, these 2 revealed evidence of in situ burning and may be hearths. A 4th pit was uncovered in the area enclosed by the curving line of G2, below a layer of redeposited natural.

There was no surviving stratigraphy on the site and all the features were cut into the subsoil. Neither gully produced finds, but it is presumed that they are contemporary based solely on the fact that they respect each other in plan and they both possess similar fills. Some prehistoric activity is evidenced, by the recovery of a flint scraper from the topsoil and a few sherds of Bronze Age pottery from one of the pits. However, recently obtained C14 dates from the charcoal filled gullies suggest a date of sometime around AD 1000 (AD 890-895 and AD 1278-1294) for occupation of the site.

Flat C, Chlorine Gardens, Malone Rd. Belfast BT9 5DJ