County: Offaly Site name: Cloghan Wind Farm, Ballindown, Crancreagh, Derrinlough, Kilcamin and Stonestown townlands
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 21E0291
Author: Dermot Nelis
Site type: Possible carved stone head
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 608470m, N 716500m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.198871, -7.873234
Development involved construction of nine wind turbines and all associated site development works, including one temporary site compound, nine turbine foundations, nine crane hardstand areas, access tracks, underground cabling, a temporary junction upgrade, and upgrades to the existing site entrance off the N62.
Monitoring was undertaken by Dermot Nelis and Fiona Maguire between 3 June 2021 and 6 April 2022, and in total took 173 days to complete.
A possible carved stone head was found in topsoil in Stonestown townland during fieldwalking in advance of construction of an access road. The artefact has been deposited with the National Museum of Ireland and research is ongoing at the time of writing.
Three pieces of waterlogged wood were recovered during monitoring in Kilcamin townland. One of the pieces of wood was submitted to Queen’s University Belfast for radiocarbon dating, and a date with a median probability of 1765 AD was returned.
No archaeological features and no additional artefacts were revealed as a result of monitoring construction of the wind farm.
36 Fingal Street, Dublin 8
