2009:079 - DRUMLANE, Cavan

Testing was undertaken at the site of a proposed graveyard at Drumlane, Milltown, during October 2009. Drumlane is a site of significant historical and archaeological importance. The overall ecclesiastical remains comprise a number of individual elements, including a church and graveyard, a round tower, a priory, cross-slabs, grave-slabs, architectural fragments and earthworks. The development area is located a minimum of 100m to the north of the extant remains of the church and round tower.
The southern area of the field in which the development is located contains the remains of a subrectangular field defined on its northern side by a broad flat-topped earthen bank measuring 42m long by 4m wide, with an internal height of 0.2m and an external height of 0.6m, with a wide, flat-bottomed, waterlogged outer fosse. The straight bank forming the northern side of this raised field is very well preserved and has a wide waterlogged external fosse measuring 4m wide and 0.3m deep. There are some traces of this feature extending into the adjacent fields to the east and west. The western bank runs for a length of 35m and is also straight-sided, and runs down on to an existing modern carpark to the south; there are traces of an external fosse flanking this side as well. The linear bank on the eastern side runs for a length of 50m and is orientated on a 45-degree angle creating a triangular-shaped field.
Prior to the commencement of testing, a buffer area was established to the immediate north and west of the above earthworks, outside of which the programme of testing was undertaken. A total of 53 test-trenches, of differing lengths, were excavated. Three of the trenches, situated to the immediate west of the established buffer area, were excavated by hand, with the remaining 50 excavated by machine fitted with a toothless, 1.5m-wide ditching/grading bucket, following which the sides and bases were cleaned and investigated by hand. All the soil generated during the trenching process was spread out and subjected to metal-detector scanning and was raked through in order to increase the chances of artefact recovery.
In general, the topsoil horizon comprised midorange/brown silty clay, with moderate amounts of pebbles, cobbles and occasional small stones dispersed randomly throughout. The topsoil was up to c. 0.2m in depth in the northern area of the site and up to 0.4m at the southern extent. This lay directly upon undisturbed sterile ^natural’ subsoil, generally comprising yellow/orange clay, with pebbles and cobbles dispersed randomly across the surface, although in a number of locations small and medium stones were uncovered protruding through the surface into the topsoil horizon. This layer was investigated to a depth of 0.5m in a number of areas in order to confirm its sterile undisturbed nature.
There were no indications from any of the trenches for truncation/disturbance of the subsoil and no features or deposits of archaeological potential were noted from any of the excavated trenches. Furthermore, no artefacts of archaeological interest were recovered from the topsoil, either as a result of the raking and metal-detector scanning of the soil or of the hand cleaning of the trench edges. The only items recovered as a result of the metal-detecting scans were short lengths of barbed wire, tin-pulls, bottle tops and the metal back of a modern trailer lamp.
Given the overall number and closely spaced nature of the test-trenches, it is likely that no subsurface features of archaeological potential exist within the development area. However, the proposed northern extent of a trench located to the immediate west of the established buffer area was not excavated due to an area of dense bush growth. There is a possibility that a section of the enclosing fosse, which is partially extant to the immediate east, may extend through this area.