2016:172 - Greggs Depot Quarry, Lough Fea (Ballybriest), Phase 1, Derry

Monitoring of the current phase of works at the quarry were carried out sporadically in 2016 under licence AE/15/144 and were required due to conditions attached to planning references I/2009/0508/F and I/2004/0028/F. In this phase an area approximately 200m long by 30m wide was stripped of peat, as well as a larger area 40m long by 60m wide at the east side of the quarry. The topsoil stripping was undertaken to the upper surfaces of the underlying gravel and sand subsoil. No archaeological material was encountered during the monitoring works and it is the opinion of monitoring archaeologists that a partial discharge of condition should be applied to this area. It should be noted that the remainder of the quarry will still require monitoring. A stone circle (LDY 045:008) was marked on the SMR as being within this phase of works. There was no evidence for this feature during monitoring works and it seems likely that this was an erroneous SMR location as the SMR records note that the feature was never located in the field and was arbitrarily located on the SMR record.