County: Tyrone Site name: Ballylagan, areas 42 and 43
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/08/104
Author: Kara Ward and Frank Mallon, for ADS Ltd, Unit 6, 21 Old Channel Road, Belfast, BT3 9DE.
Site type: Pits and deposits, burnt spreads, linear features, pits, stake-holes and possible souterrain
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 687331m, N 937229m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.174633, -6.629074
Areas 42 and 43 were investigated as part of the proposed corridor improvements of the line of the A4 between Dungannon and Ballygawley where 15km of new road will be constructed. A total of 43 SMR sites lie within 500m of either side of the new road alignments with five industrial heritage sites in the nearby vicinity. Prior to archaeological investigations on the route, prehistoric activity, both settlement and ritual, was poorly represented in the area.
Area 42 (c. 100m by 40m)
Monitoring of topsoil-stripping identified a number of possible archaeological deposits including various linear features and possible pits. The area was on the edge of a former lake now an area of bog. Many of the features exposed during topsoil-stripping were filled with peat.
A number of relatively modern features were investigated, including a field boundary ditch, stone-filled drains and a pit. The excavation revealed that the vast majority of spreads of material were natural, many of them consisting of peaty deposits lying in natural hollows in what would have been the lake edge. A number were also tree boles. Among the finds retrieved from Area 42 were five pieces of struck flint, two broken scrapers from the topsoil, two flint flakes from a possible pit and a piece of struck flint from a shallow deposit and one sherd of black-glazed earthenware recovered from a modern test pit.
Area 43 (c. 80m by 20m)
During monitoring of soil-stripping a number of archaeological features were identified, including burnt spreads, linear features, pits, stake-holes and a stone structure.
One of the burnt spreads was found to be overlying a trough which continued west, outside the limit of excavation. Several small pieces of flint debitage were found retrieved from the burnt spread. A second burnt spread, located 1m north of a small pit that contained Bronze Age pottery, also sealed a small trough and was found to have 80 small stake-holes surrounding its eastern edge in a semicircular formation.
An east–west orientated linear stone-lined structure was located roughly in the centre of the site. This feature was lined by small stone uprights and covered with capstones. All stones consisted of unworked sandstone blocks. One small piece of corroded iron was found within the fill of the stone uprights. It may be a souterrain.
Of the three pits on-site, one produced several pieces of possible Bronze Age pottery, mainly thin-walled body pieces.
An east–west linear ditch, V-shaped in profile, was located 2m south of the stone-lined feature. One terminal was apparent at its downslope side to the west and the eastern section of the ditch was truncated by a 19th/20th-century road.
