County: Donegal Site name: Letterilly 2, Combined N56 Dungloe to Cloughbolie & N56 Letterilly to Glenties (Kilraine) Scheme [Phase 1 & Phase 5 of the N56 Dungloe to Glenties (Kilraine) Scheme]
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: E005041
Author: Graham Hull, TVAS (Ireland) Ltd
Site type: Disturbed soil containing Bronze Age artefacts
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 577515m, N 896952m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.819966, -8.349856
Letterilly 2 was excavated on the route of the proposed N56 Letterilly to Glenties (Kilraine) Road Scheme, Co. Donegal. The site had been discovered during testing in 2018 (under registration number E5014). The archaeological fieldwork and post-excavation work were funded by Transport Infrastructure Ireland through Donegal County Council.
The excavation revealed evidence of a disturbed soil that included Beaker period domestic pottery sherds and Early Bronze Age funerary pottery sherds, flint and chert lithics and cremated human bone. Cremated human bone was radiocarbon dated to the Late Bronze Age. The Beaker pottery is the first in Co. Donegal and the Early Bronze Age vessels are very rare in west Donegal. The finding of Beaker and Early Bronze Age pottery together may be the first time to have happened nationally. In addition to artefact and bone analysis, charred plant remains retrieved from soil samples taken from the deposits on the site were analysed and four radiocarbon determinations for the activity obtained, ranging from the Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. The archaeological deposits within the site were fully excavated. The excavated area was backfilled and reinstated.
Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare
