County: Donegal Site name: SMINVER (Area 13)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 03E1019
Author: Billy Quinn, Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services Ltd, for Irish Archaeological Consultancy Services
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 587814m, N 860500m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.492801, -8.188093
Testing was carried out at Test Area 13, Sminver, Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal, on 18 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. Survey work in Sminver identified a D-shaped trough revetted by roughly dressed stones up to 0.3m in length. The chamber was partially filled with stone and was 0.3m deep. The site was interpreted as a trough enclosing a natural spring. To the south and south-east of the trough was a low spread of earth and stone, with evidence of some stones having been heat-fractured. The presence of these fire-cracked stones in the mound and its location near the natural spring suggested it was a fulacht fiadh.
Testing throughout the field exposed a number of drains, two stone-lined culverts and a burnt spread. The spread, situated to the east of the trough, was defined by a relatively thin layer of charcoal-enriched silty clay with fire-cracked stones. A number of sherds of modern pottery were found in association with the mound. Despite its proximity to the trough, its general form and composition would suggest that the mound is post-medieval or modern in date.
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