2020:645 - Drumboe Lower 1, Donegal

Stage (i)a Standard Test Excavations and Stage (i)h Metal Detection Surveys were undertaken in the townland of Drumboe Lower as part of the Archaeological Consultancy Services Contract of the TEN-T Priority Route Improvement Project in Donegal. The TEN-T Priority Route Improvement Project is part of the Trans-European Transport Network and comprises the construction of three sections of new road:
Section 1: N15/N13 Ballybofey/Stranorlar Urban Region; Section 2: N56/N30 Letterkenny to Manorcunningham; and Section 3: N14 Manorcunningham to Lifford/Strabane/A5 link. Drumboe Lower, in Section 1, is one of five Testing Areas (TAs) along the preferred route of the TEN-T project which require Stage (i)a Test Excavations and Stage (i)h Metal Detection Survey Services.
In total, 1,310m linear metres were test excavated at Drumboe Lower representing a >12% sample of the greenfield area available for test excavations. These excavations targeted anomalies identified through previous geophysical and LiDAR surveys are the site; these surveys were themselves undertaken to assess RMP site (DG078-005), one of five known monuments which could be impacted by the scheme.
During the Stage (i)a testing at Drumboe Lower, a single site of archaeological significance was found, comprising a probable early medieval enclosure and range of associated features. Recorded features included one enclosure ditch, one linear ditch, three pits (one of which was sectioned), a probable bowl furnace, three deposits (including a metalled surface) and two drains. Charred cereal (barley) from the upper fill of the enclosure produced a date of cal. AD 1048–1263.
Collectively the features indicate an enclosure at the site associated with known RMP site (DG078-005), the site of a possible church, which historically also has early medieval associations. The finds recovered from the site included 7 stone artefacts, amongst them three worked cobble fragments, a rubbing stone, a burnisher, a saddle quern and a rotary quern stone fragment. The latter of these in particular supports a suggestion of an early medieval date, which is also consistent with much
of the known history and folklore for Drumboe Lower.
The site at Drumboe Lower (Drumboe Lower 1) is located directly south of, and outside, the limits of the proposed road take and should not be adversely impacted by the development, although this is contingent on the scheme’s final design.

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