County: Derry Site name: SHANTALLOW
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 14A:26 Licence number: AE/02/72
Author: Rick Schulting and John Ó Néill, c/o Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, Queen’s University
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 644642m, N 921486m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.038893, -7.301593
The site of the Shantallow investigations lies to the south of Ballyarnet Lake, 4km north-west of Derry city. The area where the excavations took place lay beyond the south-western margin of fens around the lake, where previous investigations had suggested Neolithic activity, recorded as SMR 14A:26. The ground to the west of the site slopes up to Springfield Road.
In 1996 a 20m-long section of mechanically excavated pipe-trench revealed a ‘platform’ of soil, stones and timber, 15m long and 0.5m thick, associated with sherds of a Western Neolithic bowl and Lyles Hill pottery, along with flint and a porcellanite axe (Declan Hurl, Excavations 1996, No. 58). Subsequent work on the pipeline by Cormac McSparron in 1998 revealed further traces of the platform, although no further artefacts were recovered (Excavations 1998, No. 92).
Further investigation was undertaken in 2002, in an attempt to procure environmental samples that may be contemporary with the Neolithic activity uncovered previously by Paul Logue at Thornhill (Excavations 2000, No. 158, AE/00/21). Although the 1998 investigations suggested that little of the archaeological material would be recovered in situ, exploration of the site was undertaken because of the possibility of recovering peat deposits that would date to that period.
On 23 and 24 July 2002 one test-trench and 22 small pits were opened across the area where the previous features had been noted. No evidence of either secondary or in situ archaeological or peat deposits was found. On this basis, it must be concluded that the occupation site has now been completely removed.
Belfast BT7 1NN
