County: Tyrone Site name: Derryloran
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/11/101
Author: Ciara MacManus
Site type: Post-medieval graveyard
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 734313m, N 912221m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.939578, -5.903780
Monitoring of ground works associated with the widening of Derryloran Bridge within the southern outskirts of Cookstown was carried out over a period of two months from February – March 2012. The construction works would impact upon both the bridge itself which is a recorded Industrial Heritage site (IHR:04848:000:00) while a small portion of the existing Derryloran Church Graveyard (TYR038-019) which is bounded by the A505 Cookstown – Omagh road, would be taken in by the construction works. A descriptive and measured survey of the bridge was therefore carried out prior to alteration works.
The area of the graveyard which was to be impacted upon by the road scheme did not contain any marked graves, while a GPR survey of the area proved inconclusive. Monitoring of ground reduction was carried out during the construction phase of works. This revealed that there had been a high degree of soil creep towards the Ballinderry River which defined the northern boundary of the graveyard, with material from river dredging also being deposited within this portion of the graveyard. A total of 43 previously unmarked burials were uncovered during monitoring, the majority of these being interred within well-preserved wooden coffins, with a small percentage being placed in simple pit graves primarily located along the base of the existing graveyard/bridge wall. Historic records indicated that any graves uncovered within this portion of the graveyard would likely date to the 18th and 19th centuries. Therefore as part of mitigation works agreed with NIEA it was proposed that any burials uncovered during monitoring would be re-interred within another area of the graveyard with the assistance of Cookstown District Council and local clergy.
The remains of a small post-medieval lean-to structure was identified against the existing boundary wall within the southern portion of the site.
No other archaeological features or deposits were identified during the course of monitoring works.
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