County: Donegal Site name: Kilmackilvenny
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 08E0468
Author: Dermot Nelis, 36 Fingal Street, Dublin 8.
Site type: Burnt spreads
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 638698m, N 926660m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.085875, -7.393877
The proposed development would involve the construction of 75 dwellings at Kilmackilvenny, Burnfoot. Development would also involve the provision of treatment works, a percolation area, landscape areas and associated site development works.
The excavation of twelve test-trenches located throughout the proposed development area revealed the presence of four previously unidentified spreads of burnt stone in the north-eastern end of the site. Two spreads of burnt stone were identified in Trench 5 and three additional trenches, Trenches 10–12, were excavated to help define their extent, character and condition. Spreads of burnt stone were revealed in two of these test-trenches and it is suggested that they form two individual though contemporaneous and directly associated features.
These features are interpreted as the ploughed-out remains of probably Bronze Age burnt spreads. No evidence of troughs was revealed as a result of the testing. Test-trenching revealed one of the spreads over a distance of 9.1m north–south. It had a maximum exposed width of 6m. The second burnt spread was revealed over a distance of 6.6m north–south and it is suggested it may extend for an additional 1–2m to the south. It had a maximum exposed width of 2.3m. Excavation of the remainder of the trenches failed to reveal either archaeological features or artefacts.
In total, 1,854m2 of test-trenches were excavated within the 37,050m2 site, giving an approximate 5% test-trenching sample of the proposed development area.
