County: Tyrone Site name: CRIGHSHANE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/10/192
Author: Martin Fitzpatrick
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 612871m, N 877413m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.644679, -7.799819
Monitoring and testing associated with a fourteen-turbine wind farm development in the townland of Crighshane were undertaken over a period of five months from January 2011.
Monitoring indicated no signs of archaeological activity. In the north of the site the bedrock was very close to the surface and there was a lot of natural rock outcrop that never developed a mineral soil cover. The stratigraphy throughout the remainder of the site generally consisted of peat overlying natural soils and/or rock. Peat depths varied throughout the site, with the greatest depth located in the areas of Trenches 11–14. No features of archaeological significance were encountered in any of the areas monitored.
Pre-development testing in the area of turbine 2 found no evidence for a corn kiln (IHR 4495) recorded in the Industrial Heritage Record. The steep slope of the ground and the outcropping bedrock suggest that this was not an ideal location for a kiln. A walk-over survey of the site and surrounding lands found a grass-covered rectangular area which appears to conform to the site marked as a kiln on the OS map. This site is located immediately south of the Ballymongan Road and will not be affected by the development. A second kiln site also indicated on the OS map was located on the northern side of a narrow roadway leading to a disused farmhouse to the north-west of the site.
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