County: Armagh Site name: Ballymore
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/10/101
Author: Warren Bailie and Cia McConway, Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Unit 6, Channel Wharf, 21 Old Channel Road, Belfast, BT3 9DE.
Site type: Prehistoric pits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 704107m, N 848514m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.374622, -6.397642
The archaeological deposits investigated under this licence were uncovered during the construction of a 12.5km gas pipeline by Bord Gáis Éireann (NI), running between Kernan near Gilford in County Down and the townland of Derryhale in County Armagh. The topsoil-stripping was monitored by ADS Ltd between 29 April and 19 May 2010. The 24m-wide pipeline corridor crossed a total of twelve townlands, eleven of which revealed archaeological deposits; this bulletin summarises the archaeological investigations carried out over approximately 0.5km of the pipeline in the townland of Ballymore. These investigations took place between 11 and 16 June 2010.
Two areas of archaeology were investigated. Preliminary results show that the first of these consisted of a large hour-glass-shaped feature situated at 303926E 348589N measuring 1m by 3.5m and 0.4m deep. This feature contained multiple sherds of prehistoric pottery and may be the remains of a storage/refuse pit. The pottery will be analysed by a specialist to refine the date and possibly suggest a function for the feature. Approximately 50m to the west lay the other area of archaeology, at 303843E 348577N, which comprised three subrectangular features measuring between 0.5m and 1m long and between 0.3m and 0.6m wide with an average depth of 0.2m. No finds were retrieved from these features. Samples have been retained for further analysis and dating to refine the interpretation of this concentration of archaeological activity.
