County: Derry Site name: A6DD - Gortilea
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/17/195
Author: Ross Bailey
Site type: Bronze Age burnt mound & Iron Age cremation
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 656637m, N 909133m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.926697, -7.116405
The site had two distinct phases of use: Phase 1 was a large Bronze Age (40m by 16m) burnt mound and associated troughs; Phase 2 was a small Iron Age funerary ring ditch with central cremation which was cut into the top of the burnt mound. Later, several modern field drains were installed which bisected the burnt mound, with three running north-south and two running east-west, one also cutting through the ring ditch.
The burnt mound ranged from a negligible thickness at the northern, eastern and southern edges, to 0.6m thick in the area immediately underlying the later ring ditch.
During the excavation of the burnt mound a total of nine potential troughs and three palaeo-channels were found, along with several smaller pits and post-holes and the remains of a curving semi-circular gully. Initially the gully was interpreted as a potential truncated earlier house structure that had been impacted by a later trough; subsequent excavation suggested that there was no stratigraphic relationship between the features to indicate whether they were contemporary. For the purpose of this report it has been assumed that the two were most likely contemporary; this would suggest that the gully could be the remains of a structure, possibly a screen enclosing the area immediately north of Trough 6. Both Trough 6 and the gully were cut through the infill of the largest palaeo-channel, as well as a clayey redeposit from the lower levels of the burnt mound.
NAC Ltd, 638 Springfield Road, Belfast, BT12 7DY
