County: Donegal Site name: MOUNTCHARLES
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 93:6, 93:10, vicinity of Licence number: 00E0107 and ext.
Author: Declan Moore, Moore Archaeological and Environmental Services Ltd, for Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 587454m, N 877496m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.645502, -8.194369
Monitoring was carried out between the townlands of Leitrim Hill and Glencoagh/Mountcharles, Co. Donegal. Between 25 April and 21 October 2000, and 11 and 21 December 2000, monitoring of construction works was conducted on the Mountcharles/N56 bypass. The underlying geology consisted of deposits of mid-brown, sandy clays and peaty clays. These strata consistently overlay a compact, blue/grey, sandy boulder clay and sandstone; dark grey shale; and fine-grained limestone bedrock exposed at the base of excavations.
At the location of the eastern junction with Mountcharles, the antlered skull of a giant Irish deer, Megaloceros giganteus, was recovered from a deposit of sand and silt underlying a series of peat deposits at a depth of approximately 5m below the existing ground level. Nothing further of archaeological significance was noted during the course of monitoring.
200 Dún na Coiribe, Galway
