2010:575 - Cuiltyconway, Roscommon

An unauthorised development at Cuiltyconway, situated between Drumsna and Jamestown adjacent to the River Shannon, included the construction of a gravel access, the presence of a mobile home, insertion of a septic tank, paving stones and the partial excavation of a slipway for their boat on the river.
The development included works adjacent to the southern terminal end of the Doon of Drumsna, a protected national monument. The Doon (linear earthwork RO011–058) is a massive Iron Age earthwork stretching for several kilometres and enclosing a large area of land that is at the centre of a wide bend in the River Shannon. This section of the monument is heavily overgrown and not readily visible but its sheer scale becomes apparent when you cross over its breadth on the way to the river. By order of Roscommon County Council, all elements of the unauthorised development were to be removed under licensed archaeological supervision.
The unauthorised gravel access is currently the subject of an application for retention and thus has not been removed. The remaining elements of the development were removed/restored on two separate occasions under the full supervision of the author. An excavation licence was required to facilitate the rescue of any potential archaeological features or finds damaged during the course of the unauthorised development and/or its removal/restoration. A remote sensing licence (09R205) was required to perform a metal-detection survey of the riverine deposits excavated for the slipway on the River Shannon. No archaeological materials, features or finds were recovered during the course of the restoration over late 2009 and early 2010.