County: Donegal Site name: GADDYDUFF
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DG010–015 Licence number: 06E0660
Author: Dominic Delany, Dominic Delany & Associates
Site type: Standing stone and Pit
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 636998m, N 946837m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.267273, -7.417869
Pre-development testing was carried out on the site of a proposed housing development at Gaddyduff, Co. Donegal, on 26 July 2006. The development site is located in the vicinity of DG010–015, the site of two standing stones. One of the stones is extant in the school grounds across the road from the development site. The second is recorded as having being broken for gravel and its site is unknown.
Testing comprised the excavation of five trenches on the development footprint. The topsoil had an average thickness of 0.5m and overlay yellow/orange fine sandy subsoil. Part of a circular pit feature (diameter c. 1m) was exposed at the entrance to the development site some 13m north of the roadside pavement. A section cutting revealed an upper fill of mid-brown silty clay, with occasional charcoal over red/brown silty clay with frequent charcoal inclusions. The break of slope at the top of the pit was sharp, becoming more gradual towards the base. The pit was 0.42m deep and one large sub-angular stone was located near the base. The primary fill of oxidised clay suggests the feature may be a funerary pit, although no burnt bone was recovered. It is also possible that this feature is the socket of the destroyed standing stone. Archaeological excavation of the pit feature was recommended.
Unit 3, Howley Court, Oranmore, Co. Galway
