County: Donegal Site name: Disert Graveyard, Donegal
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DG084001 Licence number: 19E0150 (Ext.) Monitoring
Author: Fiona Beglane
Site type: Ecclesiastical site, multi-period
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 587942m, N 887292m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.733529, -8.187219
Disert Co. Donegal DG084-001 is a multi-period archaeological landscape. Features and place name evidence suggest that it may have its origins in the early medieval period or earlier. Local tradition is that this was a Columban foundation and various cures and miracles are associated with the site. Disert lies directly under Carnaween Mountain, another pilgrimage site, which has deep folkloric traditions around Fionn MacCumhaill. As such Disert is of great archaeological and historical importance, and it continues to be culturally important, with a post-medieval pilgrimage that survives to this day. The overall aim of the Disert Heritage Project is to investigate the nature and origin of the archaeological remains at Disert and to place them in their wider cultural and landscape context.
Research excavations took place in 2019 and 2021 under the present licence and it is hoped to continue research excavations in 2022. This present report only details results of the licenced monitoring of works to fit a perforated plastic land drain within the cut of an existing open drain for agricultural purposes. The aim of the work was to improve drainage and access on flat, low-lying land adjacent to the river Eany Beg. No features or artefacts of archaeological significance were found during this work.
CERIS, School of Science, ITSligo
