County: Derry Site name: 22 Church Road, Kilrea
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: AE/06/146
Author: Christopher J. Farrimond, FarrimondMacManus Ltd, 150 Elmvale, Culmore, Derry, BT48 8SL.
Site type: Early medieval/medieval
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 692559m, N 912409m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.950758, -6.555087
Monitoring of topsoil-stripping was undertaken in advance of the construction of residential housing at 22 Church Road, Kilrea, Derry, between 27 and 31 July 2006.
Three shallow subsoil-cut pits (F9, F12 and F13) were identified during monitoring within the low-lying central portion of the proposed development site, extending over an area of 2m by 2m. Excavation of these features revealed evidence for some small-scale metalworking in the form of a possible bowl furnace (F9) and two other pits (F12 and F13), which may have been bowl furnaces or hearths. Radiocarbon analysis of the charcoal within the basal deposit (F11) of pit F12 has provided a date range for this feature of between ad 1160 and 1260, with the most probable period of the deposition of F11 being some time between ad 1170 and 1230. The spatial proximity of the three features and the similarity of the deposits with which they were filled would suggest that they were roughly contemporaneous. Moreover, the late 12th/early 13th-century date of pit F12 places it near the beginning of the medieval period in Ireland.
