County: Fermanagh Site name: White Island
Sites and Monuments Record No.: FER173–002 Licence number: AE/06/190
Author: Ronan McHugh, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT7 1NN.
Site type: Ecclesiastical site
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 617138m, N 860105m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.489116, -7.735484
Monitoring took place of the excavation of four small, approximately square trenches on the site of White Island Church, Co. Fermanagh. The trenches were designed to accommodate two handrails that will facilitate access to the site. The pits were excavated at the base of an existing stile in the boundary wall surrounding the church. Trenches 1 and 2 were located at the base of the stile outside the boundary wall, Trenches 3 and 4 were in a corresponding position on the interior of the wall. Trench 1 measured 0.23m by 0.28m, Trench 2 was 0.25m by 0.2m, Trench 3 was 0.25m by 0.23m and Trench 4 was 0.26m by 0.24m.
All four trenches were excavated to a depth of c. 0.45m, which was deemed sufficient to secure the handrails. The stratigraphy recorded in all four trenches was similar: a shallow sod overlay a deposit of loose black soil, rubble and stones. Sealed by this latter layer was a deposit of loose black clay loam, which was the basal deposit at the completion of the excavation in all four trenches. In Trench 1, fragments of human bone were recorded in the upper portion of the basal black clay loam deposit, but, as the excavation was completed without the necessity of further excavation through this deposit, the bone was returned to the base of the trench prior to the installation of the handrails. No other features or deposits of archaeological significance were observed during this exercise.
