County: Tyrone Site name: Cavankilgreen, area 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/08/61
Author: James McKee, for ADS Ltd, Unit 6, 21 Old Channel Road, Belfast, BT3 9DE.
Site type: Burnt mounds
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 664709m, N 855114m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.440439, -7.002455
Area 1 was investigated during the construction of the A5 road realignment scheme running south from the current A4 to the immediate south-west of Ballygawley for 2.7km towards Aughnacloy. Whilst no officially recorded site lay along the actual corridor of the proposed alignment, NIEA felt that there was potential for unexpected archaeological deposits and features to be identified during the topsoil-strip and therefore a programme of monitoring was required.
The site was located between Chainages 2380 and 2430. It measured c. 50m by 30m. It consisted of a burnt mound measuring up to 9m long, 8m wide and with a surviving depth of 0.15m. This deposit sealed a small pit/pot-boiler which measured 0.58m in diameter and 0.16m deep. It was filled with a mixture of fire-cracked stones and a charcoal-blackened loamy sand. There was a similar small pit outlying the burnt mound which contained the same type of fill.
Two troughs were excavated. One of these was subrectangular in shape and measured 1.95m long, 1.25m wide and 0.3m deep. Two timber planks were preserved in the base, as well as three to four planks along each long edge; a single stake was found at both the north-west and the south-east ends as well as some timber which was badly preserved in these locations. Some clay was packed around the edges and around the wooden lining. The fills comprised a mix of peaty and silty clays intermixed with fire-cracked stone. Hazelnut shells, cattle, pig teeth and a pig humerus were retrieved from the fills. Another trough measured 0.8m long, 0.5m wide and 0.45m deep. This was also filled with typical burnt-mound material.
