County: Cavan Site name: DRUMELTAN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: 06E0417
Author: Carmel Duffy, Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 658677m, N 808624m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.023483, -7.104517
The archaeological section in the environmental impact statement for Bindoo Wind Farm (see No. 214 above), prepared by Billy Quinn of Archaeological Services Unit Ltd, recommended testing of the site for Turbine 16. The site was in the vicinity of CV022–016, listed as a souterrain, possible site. The site is not visible in the field. Testing was undertaken at the proposed site for Turbine 16 as part of an assessment in June.
Two test-trenches were excavated on the site: one on the area for the turbine site and one on the approach road to the site. The trenches disclosed no material of an archaeological nature. The topsoil was also stripped off the area for the hardstanding, between the access road and the turbine site, under monitoring. The area measured 15m by 15m. Three anomalies were observed. The assessment recommended excavation and recording of the features before earthworks associated with the wind turbine resumed.
The excavation of the features was carried out in July under an extension of the same licence. The main feature was a shallow enclosure ditch measuring 10.4m east–west by 9.4m by 0.2–0.4m wide. It was interrupted or incomplete; the four pieces made up a subrectangle. There was only one fill in the ditch, with the exception of the north-west corner, where there was a second fill. There were no artefacts or finds associated with the feature.
Six features were detected within the remit of the ditch: four features with small amounts of charcoal in three of the fills; an oval cut 1m by 0.8m by 0.25m deep with a small amount of burnt-bone inclusions; and a truncated cremation, 0.3m by 0.35m by 0.01m deep. The latter, which was close to the centre of the enclosure, contained burnt bone and the material was 100% sampled.
As site CV022–016 had not been discovered, the report recommended that monitoring of any earthworks at the site continue. Monitoring was conducted for all of the groundworks, which became more extensive than initially estimated. The top of the hill was lowered and the spoil stockpiled on the hill to the west. The monitoring disclosed no material of an archaeological nature, and the position of the souterrain CV022–016 was not discovered.
