County: Derry Site name: TULLYNURE: Lissan Church
Sites and Monuments Record No.: LDY046:001 Licence number: AE/05/147
Author: Kara Ward, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork
Site type: No archaeology found
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 680494m, N 882884m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.687642, -6.751581
Monitoring of topsoil-stripping was carried out on the site of a proposed extension to the graveyard at Lissan church. The site lies within a pre-Norman ecclesiastical enclosure. Lissan is mentioned in the Annals of Ulster as early as AD 744 and also functioned as a parish church during the medieval period. The present church building is modern and set in a polygonal graveyard. The perimeter wall revets a considerable mound. Test excavations by Nick Brannon to the south of the church in 1985 located a large ditch, thought to be the ecclesiastical enclosure (Excavations 1985, No. 17). Topsoil-stripping for the graveyard extension uncovered nothing of archaeological significance. The field had been intensively traversed by modern land drains.
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast
