County: Derry Site name: CAW
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 14:66 Licence number: AE/02/97
Author: Peter Bowen, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)
ITM: E 645680m, N 917902m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.006598, -7.285933
A proposed development of 160 houses on an area of land overlooking the River Foyle in the townland of Caw, Co. Derry, was found to be within the area of a battle, reported in the Annals of the Four Masters for AD 1200, between the Cenél Eóghain and the Cenél Conaill. Other than the battle site, there were no known archaeological sites within the area of the development.
Because of the possibility of metalwork from the reported battle surviving, a metalwork survey of the site was undertaken as part of the planning conditions. Four corridors, 5m wide and 175–225m long, were laid out across the site and surveyed. Nothing from the reported battle was found, but a cluster of four 18th-century musket balls was recovered from the north-west corner of the site and may be the result of wildfowling along the tidal margins of the River Foyle. As a result of the metal-detecting survey, it was decided by the Environment and Heritage Service that no further metal-detecting was required, and topsoil-stripping was allowed to proceed. This work will be reported on in Excavations 2003.
Unit 48, Westlink Enterprise Centre, 30–50 Distillery Street, Belfast BT12 5BJ
