2007:165 - Doonyvardan, Clare

Monitoring of groundworks was carried out between 18 June and 3 July 2007 at a development in Doonyvardan townland, Co. Clare. The National Monuments Service was informed of unauthorised land-clearance works at CL005–115, an archaeological complex, on 29 August 2006 and requested that works cease with immediate effect. A considerable amount of work had, however, already taken place. An archaeologist with the department subsequently carried out an assessment.
The cleared land lay within an area rich in monuments (to the east and south-east of the cleared ground). There were field systems in the damaged area, but their precise nature was unrecorded. Some of the cleared topsoil had been respread over an area in the south-west section of the cleared area; however, the work was not yet complete, so grading works and spreading of the remaining topsoil required monitoring. The work covered an area of c. sixteen acres in extent.
The site was situated in an area of karst, typical of the Burren, near the top of Corkscrew Hill, c. 7km south-south-west of Ballyvaghan. Prior to the field clearance works of 2006 the site would have consisted of a mixture of rock outcrop (limestone pavement), pasture and scrub (hawthorn and hazel). As a result of the field clearance, only c. 20% of the area was left undisturbed. There were two main undisturbed areas that divided the site in three. Within these undisturbed areas a small number of short sections of drystone field walls survived.
The groundworks consisted of the spreading of topsoil from spoilheaps around the site and the grading of the already disturbed areas. The stratigraphy encountered over the entire site consisted of topsoil, orange/grey/brown plastic clay, grey boulder clay and limestone bedrock, all four of which were visible on the surface, due to the previous works carried out on the site.
One area of the site, located halfway along the northern boundary, showed evidence of human activity. The area had been previously disturbed during the groundworks of 2006 and some of it had been reduced to boulder clay; however, ridges of topsoil remained visible. The area measured 22m north–south by 23m. On the surface of the area burnt stone, a small number of animal bone fragments (mostly teeth), including three small burnt fragments, a clay-pipe bowl fragment, a post-medieval rim sherd and a modern pottery sherd were found. A 1m by 1m trench was excavated by hand to a depth of 70–250mm in the centre of this area to attempt to uncover its potential archaeological significance. Below the remains of the topsoil was a layer consisting of burnt stone and soil, which contained charcoal and animal-bone fragments. Below the burnt layer was orange/grey/brown plastic clay, the top of which was streaked with charcoal. Following the investigation, this entire area was covered in topsoil from an adjacent spoilheap to preserve it in situ.
The stray finds recovered from the remainder of the site were a number of modern pottery sherds, one large sherd of blackware, three clay-pipe stem fragments and animal-bone fragments (cattle, sheep/
goat and pig), a tiny proportion of which had cut-marks.