County: Tyrone Site name: LISNAGOWAN/CREEVAGH LOWER/CREEVAGH UPPER/TULLYODONNELL/ROSSBEG
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/09/062
Author: David Holloway, John Cronin & Associates, 28 Upper Main Street, Buncrana, Co. Donegal.
Site type: Fulacht fiadh, etc.
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 679031m, N 866431m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.540082, -6.778695
Monitoring conducted for the A29 Carland Bridge realignment scheme, Co. Tyrone, exposed a fulacht fiadh, a bowl furnace and associated pit/post-holes and a ditch.
A bowl furnace and two associated possible pits
[c.06] and [c.09] were exposed in Area 1 beneath the topsoil on a north-sloping hill between Chainage 960m and 980m, c. 60m north of Creevagh Road at grid reference 279097 366434. The dimensions of the bowl furnace were 0.49m long, 0.47m wide and 0.24m deep. It formed a small pit below the topsoil that had been clay-lined. Slag from the smelting process, which had fallen to the base of the pit and taken the shape of the base, remained in situ. The fill contained much slag and charcoal. Pit (c.06) lay 0.7m south-west of the bowl furnace, partially under the west baulk. Pit (c.09) lay c. 0.9m north-west of the bowl furnace, partially under the west baulk. These features were shallow but, bearing in mind their proximity to the bowl furnace, may represent truncated post-holes for a basic windbreak structure.
A 3.4m section of ditch was exposed in Area 4 beneath the topsoil directly adjacent to south of Creevagh Road at Chainage 1020m and directly adjacent to/west of a farm yard. The ditch may have been cut by the road but this could not be determined. A 1m-wide section was excavated through the ditch during the monitoring process. The ditch was 2.4m wide and 0.6m deep, containing a single fill including 19th/20th-century china. The ditch is likely to have been post-medieval and possibly 20th-century in date.
A fulacht fiadh was exposed in Area 4 beneath the topsoil at the base of a south-sloping hill between Chainage 1260m and 1300m, cut by the junction of the existing A29 with the Tullycullion Road, straddling the townland boundary between Creevagh Upper and Tullyodonnell at grid reference 279060 366117. The mound measured 8m east–west by 10m at its widest, and a maximum of 0.4m deep. The mound material was a single dark deposit containing burnt limestone, sandstone and flint and overlay two troughs. The remains of two wood-lined troughs with associated internal and external stakes were excavated. The troughs were both located roughly centrally underneath the mound.
