County: Mayo Site name: PARKE GROUP WATER SCHEME, DERRYHICK
Sites and Monuments Record No.: MA060–042 Licence number: 08E0744
Author: Bernard Guinan, Coosan, Athlone, Co. Westmeath.
Site type: Enclosure
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 521238m, N 799093m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.935182, -9.199461
Testing was conducted in July 2009 in advance of the construction of a new reservoir and associated treatment works in Derryhick townland c. 10km north-east of Castlebar, Co. Mayo. Derryhick Hill (74m OD) is located over 300m east of Derryhick Lake and c. 2km south-west of the major lakes of Conn and Cullin. The reservoir construction impacted on the zone of archaeological constraint of MA060–042 (possible enclosure). The development was required to upgrade Parke group water scheme, which is part of Mayo group water schemes, Design, Build and Operate Bundle 2, Advance Works 3 (monitored under licence 07E1130 (see Excavations 2007, No. 1212, and Excavations 2008, No. 863). Construction of the reservoir, which was to have started in 2008, did not commence until August 2009.
Three test-trenches were excavated with a mechanical digger using a toothless bucket. Trenches 1 and 2 (set 10m apart) were 45m long and 1.5m wide, orientated north-east/south-west. A third trench (30m long) was excavated 10m to the south.
Over most of the test area, a mid-brown topsoil rested directly on orange/brown sandstone sands and gravels, containing many sandstone cobbles. Outcrops of sandstone and quartzite characterised the base of the trenches. The trenches ranged in depth from 0.1m at the crest of the hill to a maximum depth of 0.77m. No archaeological deposits or features were encountered during testing.
One struck lithic and two ceramic sherds were recovered during the monitoring of topsoil-stripping in the area between the test-trenches. Find 1 was a tertiary chert flake, black in colour, with clear evidence of choncodial fracture and a diffuse bulb of percussion. Negative flake scars are visible on the dorsal surface. The dorsal scar pattern is crossed with previous removals running perpendicular to the blank. The distal termination is stepped and the striking platform crushed. Find 2 was a triangular sherd of blue willow pattern ceramic and Find 3 was a trapezoidal sherd of brown floral pattern ceramic.
