County: Derry Site name: Evishagaran
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/19/144
Author: Christina O'Regan
Site type: Prehistoric bank feature
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 680098m, N 906111m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.896341, -6.751312
Archaeological monitoring was carried out over the course of 16 months from March 2020 to July 2021 as part of a windfarm development. A total of 53 small test pits were excavated to inform the final design. The stratigraphy encountered in each of the test pits was generally the same. The overlying vegetation was removed to reveal a dark brown to black peat. The peat was generally compact and not very fibrous though fragments of possible silver birch were encountered in a few of the pits. The peat gave way to a plastic grey clay with very few inclusions.
An area of potential archaeological features was investigated at the footprint of Turbine 11 (WTG 11). They consisted of four linear features cut into the natural and filled with small stones; a setting, possibly two, of reasonably similar, regular shaped stones; a bank which was clearly seen in the south-eastern baulk. Flint fragments were scattered across the ground surface.
The stone features were resolved as glacial formations, striations in the clay. Such features had been noted previously across the development but their frequency within this WTG warranted further investigation. The bank was composed of grey clay, interpreted as re-deposited subsoil, and was therefore extremely difficult to identify during the removal of blanket bog. It was noted in one section face only. The flint was cleaned and discounted as flakes which had broken through natural forces and un-worked nodules.
No other features or deposits of archaeological interest were encountered during the course of works.
IAC Archaeology, 9 Stranmillis Road, Belfast, BT9 5AF
