County: Donegal Site name: SMINVER (Area 11)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E1017
Author: Billy Quinn, Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services Ltd. for Irish Archaeological Consultancy Services
Site type: Burnt spread
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 587647m, N 860368m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.491618, -8.190661
Testing was carried out at Test Area 11, Sminver, Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, on 19 and 21 July 2003. The work was undertaken for Donegal County Council on behalf of the National Roads Authority. The scheme involves the construction of the proposed N15 Bundoran/Ballyshannon Bypass as part of the National Roads Authority’s programme for upgrading the N15 Sligo to Lifford Road. Initial survey work in Sminver identified two sites, Sites 4 and 5. Site 4 was described as a number of clearance cairns, each approximately 1.5m in diameter and 0.4m high and made of large boulders approximately 0.5–1m in diameter. Site 5 was an uneven, overgrown mound of stones approximately 20m north-east/south-west, possibly an area of settlement and clearance.
A total of thirteen test-trenches were excavated throughout Area 11. Excavation exposed a natural stratigraphy, with the single exception of a burnt spread uncovered in Trench 8. An investigation of the deposit along its northern edge produced no finds. The spread was subsequently recorded and covered in plastic for full resolution at a later date.
Corporate House, Ballybrit Business Park, Ballybrit, Galway
