County: Donegal Site name: Shannagh
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DG070–028 Licence number: 07E1175
Author: Eoin Sullivan, Gort Archaeology, Tullamore, Co. Offaly.
Site type: No archaeological significance
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 621225m, N 944844m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.250295, -7.666175
The development site is located c. 1.5km to the south east of Raphoe Village, Co. Donegal. The site was a greenfield site and the proposed development was a single bungalow and associated siteworks. The boundary of the proposed development was adjacent to the constraint area of a site of an enclosure (DG070–028) with the resultant request for further information based upon excavated test-trenches.
A separate site of a single house located to the south-east was the subject of a geophysical survey and test-trenching by Anne Carey in June 2007 (Excavations 2007, No. 377, 07E0490). The site is closer to the location of the enclosure (site). The testing revealed that the geophysical anomalies were not of archaeological significance.
The cartographic sources show a circular enclosure, probably a ringfort, on the mid-19th-century edition of the OS map. However, no other available maps show the presence of the enclosure. The site was visited prior to the excavation of the trenches and no visible traces of an enclosure were identifiable on the field surface.
The site was assessed on the basis of five mechanically excavated test-trenches, each of which had similar stratigraphy, consisting of shallow topsoil overlying orange/brown subsoil that in turn overlay undisturbed natural slate. No features or materials of archaeological significance were encountered during the excavation of the test-trenches.
