2008:1188 - COOKSTOWN: Castle Road, Tyrone

The site is located on lands off Castle Road in south-east Cookstown. It measures c. 125m north to south by 90m at its widest point with an access leading off Castle Road. It is currently occupied by two domestic properties and a number of outbuildings located around a yard to the rear. The proposed development concerns the construction of a 50-bed nursing home and eight retirement dwellings incorporating underground car parking and thereby requiring major groundworks.

The proposed development site lies within an archaeologically sensitive area. There are twelve recorded sites within a 1.5km radius, with another located just outside this radius. Furthermore, a standing stone lies within the actual boundaries of the proposed development site. However, land improvements associated with the construction of adjacent houses had removed all trace of the stone.

Phase 1 works took place during December 2008. As part of a testing regime ten trenches were laid c. 4m apart in a north-east/south-west orientation across the green pastureland to the north-east. A number of small pits and post-holes were found in eight of these trenches, with Bronze Age pottery being found within a number of these features. Two linear features were also found in one trench and may represent the remains of two separate ring-barrows.

The archaeological features uncovered during the testing represent Bronze Age funerary activity, which together with results from other nearby excavations in recent years illustrate how extensive Bronze Age activity is within the locale.