County: Cavan Site name: Lisdaran
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CV020–057 Licence number: 07E1005
Author: Ciara McCarthy, for Arch-Tech Ltd, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2.
Site type: Testing – various
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 641192m, N 806286m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.004163, -7.371655
Testing was carried out as part of a pre-planning assessment of the site of a proposed development on the outskirts of Cavan town. The development site is transected by a steep-sided drumlin, on top of which is located a ringfort. The ringfort, with a 30m buffer zone surrounding it, is to remain preserved within the development. A total of 64 trenches were excavated, representing 4.1km of trenching across the eight fields that comprise the development.
A possible wooden trackway was identified in T35 and T36 in an area of bog in Field 5. From the investigation of a 1m section of the trackway in T35, it appears to be a single split plank laid down on the clay marl. The plank continued beneath the east and west section. A polished stone axehead was recovered from the surface of the trackway, dating to the Neolithic period.
A second area of prehistoric activity was identified in Field 3. Two pits, which may be the remains of troughs, and a burnt-stone spread were identified.
A saddle quernstone indicating Neolithic or Bronze Age activity was recovered from the topsoil in Field 7. A thin spread of burnt stone was also identified in this field, T50, that may represent a second area of fulacht fiadh activity. In total seventeen features were identified, representing three areas of archaeological interest and eleven possible archaeological features.
