1996:364 - COOLEENEY/DERRYFADDA/DERRYVILLE/TEMPLETOUHY, Tipperary

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Tipperary Site name: COOLEENEY/DERRYFADDA/DERRYVILLE/TEMPLETOUHY

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 96E0237

Author: Malachy Conway for Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd.

Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous

Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)

ITM: E 620246m, N 660642m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.696540, -7.700477

An archaeological assessment was carried out along the dry-land margins of Derryville Bog to accompany a planning proposal by Minorco/Lisheen for a proposed tailings management facility (TMF) and plant site. This investigation was carried out between 17 September and 13 November 1996 and ran concurrently with excavations on Derryville Bog during 1996 (see Excavations 1996, No. 365).

Derryville Bog is located c. 5 miles south-west of Templetouhy and c. 5 miles north-west of Moyne. The dry-land assessment covered three townlands: Cooleeny, Derryfadda and Derryville. Test excavation was required within the footprint of the TMF where it crossed onto dryland pasture to both west and east of the peat bog, as well as within a proposed plant site located in pasture west of the TMF.

Three stages of trial-trenching were undertaken: (1) the south-eastern sector of Derryville bog; (2) within the proposed TMF in dryland to both west and east of the bog, and (3) the proposed area of the plant site and its access routes west of the bog.

The assessment was preceded by a magnetic susceptibility survey, undertaken by Geo-Arc Ltd (Galway), covering three areas within the footprint of the TMF, two on the western and one on the eastern dryland areas. These surveys failed to reveal anything of archaeological significance on the west, while a semicircular anomaly on the east was tentatively viewed as being of archaeological potential.

Stage 1: Re-excavation of field-drains (Nos 49–57) along the east and south-east areas of the bog.
The drains were excavated to the top of mineral subsoil in an attempt to locate evidence for activity along the bog margin, especially at the end of the trackway 95DER18 (see Excavations 1996, No. 365), and to facilitate terrain mapping of the subsoil in this area. Natural features such as glacial moraines were encountered at the mineral soil horizon, and numerous tree stumps were located within the peat profile. Of significance, several spreads of burnt mound material were revealed in drains 52 and 53. No other evidence for prehistoric or later activity was uncovered.

Stage 2
A total of 39 trenches were mechanically excavated within the TMF footprint, 30 on the west and nine on the east of the bog. Trenches varied in orientation and length, ranging from 193.1m by 2m to 10.7m by 2m. An area of c. 63,592m2 was examined through test-trenching. In general, soil profiles comprised a thin topsoil (dark brown or grey-brown soil) or fibrous peat between 0.05m and 0.25m deep. Over most of the areas topsoil lay directly above the buff mineral subsoil, within which were numerous stone outcrops. Occasionally a deposit of grey-brown sandy soil or grey sandy clay, between 0.05m and 0.1m in depth, separated topsoil from mineral subsoil. Features were uncovered largely on the mineral soil horizon and comprised a mixture of cultivation furrows, field-drains, redundant field boundaries and hedge lines, tree-stump holes, spreads of stone and scatters of charcoal. All of these features relate to post-medieval and modern agricultural activities or natural (glacial) subsoil variations (the semicircular anomaly from geophysical survey results falls into this latter category).

Stage 3
Thirteen trenches were mechanically excavated over the proposed plant site location and across access routes. Trenches again varied in orientation and in length, ranging from 330m by 2.2m to 47m by 2m. An area of 4687.9m2 was examined through test-trenching. Soil profiles and depths were similar to those recorded within Stage 2 testing but with the absence of peaty topsoil. As with Stage 2, most of the features represented post-medieval agricultural activities, but a small feature of possible late medieval date was uncovered in Trench 43. It consisted of an elongated pit or slot measuring 0.9m east-west and 024m north-south. It was U-shaped in profile, containing grey sandy soil with a high charcoal constituent. No finds of significance were recovered from this investigation.The general absence of archaeological features from such a large (and random) excavation area is unusual. Nearly all features recorded from Stages 2 and 3 investigations are derived either from natural processes or from post-medieval agricultural activities and landscape alterations. Examination of aerial photographs also revealed nothing of significance within the above designated areas. Monitoring of construction works will be undertaken in spring 1997.

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