2017:457 - A4 Enniskillen Bypass, Area B, Mullylogan, Gortadrehid Little, Gortadrehid Big, Fermanagh

An archaeological evaluation was undertaken prior to the construction of a new 2.1km stretch of road to the south of Enniskillen to link the A509 Derrylin Road with the A4 Dublin Road. The scheme is broadly aligned east-west, and crosses the River Erne to the east, and the Sillees River to the west.
Strip area B consisted of an area of 3081m2 in Field 4 of the project (see plate). The area contained within it a number of anomalies which were identified during the geophysical survey. All topsoil removal within Area B was carried out by a mechanical digger fitted with a toothless bucket.
A single layer of topsoil was removed. It ranged in depth from 0.3-0.5m across the area. This topsoil was a grey-brown silty clay loam. It sealed the naturally occurring subsoil, an orange-grey clay banded with large patches of grey stony clay. It is possible that these bands of grey stony clay are what caused the geophysical anomalies in the area. A test hole was excavated to ensure that the grey stony clay deposit was not archaeological in nature. This test hole was excavated to a depth of 2.4m. It was found that the grey stony clay deposit extended to a depth of 2.2m, and sealed a sterile alluvial clay.
Numerous stone field drains were also found throughout Area B, extending north-east/south-west and north-west/south-east towards ditches at the field boundaries.
Nothing of archaeological significance were uncovered during monitoring.

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