2011:132 - LISNEAL, Derry

The site is adjacent to Crescent Link on the south-eastern edge of the city of Derry and comprises two individual development schemes: one a food store and hotel development, and the other a mixed-use business, leisure, tourism, healthcare and retail scheme.

The proposed application sites incorporate an irregularly shaped area bounded to the north-west by Crescent Link. It measures approximately 640m north-north-east to south-south-west by 300m at its widest point. The site is overgrown marginal ground which contains evidence of spoil heaps and debris, especially towards the new infrastructure to the south-east. It is located on a plateau approximately 80m above sea level, overlooking the Foyle River Valley to the north-west and the Faughan River Valley to the south-east. The terrain within the west-north-western corner of the site slopes downhill to the west-north-west.

The site was evaluated via a series of 27 trenches, each 1.85–2m wide and together totalling 2,209m in length. A total of 296 features were recorded, 21 of which are of archaeological potential, the remainder being of post-medieval or modern agricultural origin. It was noted that in general the areas of archaeological potential lay towards the north-west of the site, while the southern and south-western parts appear to be archaeologically sterile.

Four trenches contained features of archaeological potential. In Trench 2 there were seven potential features. In Trench 4 there were ten. In Trench 11 there were three possible archaeological features and in Trench 14 there was one. These include three linear features and eighteen deposits which may fill pits or post-holes. No artefacts were recovered in association with these features, but the nature of their fills suggested that they might be of archaeological potential.

Archaeological Development Services Ltd, Unit 6 Channel Wharf, 21 Old Channel Road, Belfast BT3 9DE