2009:563 - PRUCKLISH/CREENAGH/CAHANAGH/ CLOONRALLAGH/CLOONCOOSE/LISNAMUCK/ TEMPLEMICHAEL GLEBE/ARDNACASSAGH/ KNOCKAHAW/GLACK, Longford

Monitoring of works on the Longford central regional drainage scheme continued in 2009 along the portions of the pipeline which traversed greenfield areas and at a crossing of the River Camlin, where there was potential for archaeological material to be uncovered.
The soils varied across the scheme. At the northern end of the scheme topsoil was c. 0.28m deep. Poorly drained, boggy pastureland was present to the north-east of the River Camlin and at the southern end of the strip topsoil was between 0.2m and 0.35m deep. Subsoil was not uncovered along the riverbanks on either side of the Camlin, where there was a deep deposit of material previously excavated from the river.
Two pits were identified and excavated in Cloonrallagh. These features are probably prehistoric in date but the results of radiocarbon analysis had not been obtained at the time of writing. The only other features noted elsewhere along the scheme were those resulting from post-medieval agricultural activity.
The excavation area at Cloonrallagh was 40m by 6m. A small oval pit, 1m by 0.9m, was uncovered at the southern end of the site. It was 0.42m deep and had three levels of fill. All of these contained charcoal and the upper fill also had inclusions of burnt stone. A similarly sized cooking pit or trough was uncovered c. 27m to the north-east of the pit. It measured 1.1m by 0.9m and was 0.2m deep with two fills. The lower fill was grey silt which had a lens of black decaying organic matter. It was sealed by grey/brown silty clay with frequent burnt stone. No features were identified in the area between these two pits but a series of north-west/south-east-orientated plough furrows cut through the subsoil and truncated the archaeological features.
The pipeline crossed the River Camlin to the south of the excavation area. In order to facilitate the insertion of a pipe across the river, water was diverted into a newly dug 3m-wide trench along the southern riverbank. The trench was 13m long and c. 30m of the river was dammed off. The writer walked and inspected the dry riverbed, carrying out a metal-detector survey. A 1.6m-wide trench was then excavated across the weedy riverbed. No archaeological features or finds were noted, nor were any metal-detection ^hits’ recorded.
A new reservoir was created at the southern end of the scheme in a greenfield area at Knockahaw. The southern end of the reservoir footprint had been previously disturbed and unfortunately excavation works on the northern end commenced without prior notice to the archaeologist. Consequently it was only possible to monitor the final phase of works but nothing of archaeological significance was identified.