2007:332 - Drumrot, Derry

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Derry Site name: Drumrot

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/07/239

Author: David McIlreavy, Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT7 1NN.

Site type: Possible conjoined rath

Period/Dating:

ITM: E 484682m, N 581227m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.971138, -9.678378

An archaeological evaluation was carried out in advance of development. The site includes the eastern section of an undated enclosure (LDY048–033) noted on the first-edition OS map of 1834 for the area. Three test-trenches were mechanically excavated to the surface of the subsoil. An area of disturbed red sandy clay was interpreted as the remains of a levelled bank running in an arc approximately south-west/north-east across the site. A section of ditch was mechanically excavated along this disturbed material, exposing a V-shaped profile (1.6m maximum depth by 3.5m maximum width). The arc of disturbed material is considered to be part of an enclosure to the immediate south of the structure noted on the first-edition map for the area, the proximity of the ditch and bank suggesting a conjoined rath.