2001:275 - GLENMORE–BALLYBOFEY, Donegal

Donegal County Council propose, as part of the ongoing works on the R252 Ballybofey to Fintown road, to improve the section from Glenmore picnic area in the west to Ballybofey in the east, a distance of just over 6km. However, the works are to be divided into two sections, with the first running the 2.3km to Dooish schoolhouse. The first section of the scheme will involve a combination of road-straightening, widening and levelling, and includes the strengthening of a number of bridges. The width of the final carriageway will be 5m; the present one is variable but is on average 4m wide. Examination of the roadside verges and hedges revealed that, apart from one or two sections, there is adequate room within the existing road corridor for the roadworks to take place.

There is one site recorded with certainty in the Sites and Monuments Record from the area which may be affected by the road improvement scheme. The site, SMR 77:6, is recorded as Templemonaghan on the OS 4th edition 6in. map. However, no surface remains were noted either during the fieldwork undertaken for the Donegal Survey (1983) or during the walk-over survey of the route. The site is believed to have been that of an ‘Abbey’ and was reported to have been in cultivated land on the south side of the valley of the River Finn. The OS map marks it as centred in the cluster of buildings and straddling the R252, in the vicinity of Dooish School.

In the course of the walk-over survey two further sites were noted. The most impressive of these was located on the north side of the R252 at about Ch1675. It consists of a grass-covered and apparently earthen mound, roughly circular and measuring 20m in diameter. It is flat-topped and stands at most 2m above the surrounding ground. There does not appear to be any surface evidence of an enclosing ditch. Local information recounts that when a water pipe was being laid across its lower slopes the mound appeared to be composed of stony gravels.

The second site, which it was not possible to visit because of the foot-and-mouth restrictions, was some 100m to the north-west of the mound. It appeared, when viewed from the road, to be located close to the line of the old Stranorlar–Glenties railway line, and consisted of a large standing stone, some 1.5m high. It is thought locally to be a standing stone and is linked in folklore to SMR 77:5, further up the River Finn valley.

A series of licensed monitoring visits were undertaken during the course of this section of the works. Particular attention was paid to the parts of the scheme where it passed close to the site of Templemonaghan and where it crossed the line of the unusual mound noted in the walk-over. Nothing of archaeological interest was noted in the former case, and the mound, on stripping, proved to be a natural feature.

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