County: Donegal Site name: Tullaghobegly/TULACHA BEIGILE THIAR
Sites and Monuments Record No.: NA Licence number: 22E0388
Author: Patrick Walsh, Archaeological Management Solutions
Site type: Monitoring
Period/Dating: N/A
ITM: E 592967m, N 930037m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.117669, -8.110243
Archaeological monitoring of groundworks was undertaken for Uisce Éireann’s Water Network Programme, Falcarragh, Co. Donegal. The monitoring was carried out between 30 August and 14 September 2022. The works were in close proximity to the settlement at Oldtown, depicted on the first-edition six-inch Ordnance Survey (OS) map (1836), located to the south of Falcarragh in Tullaghobegly Irish townland, Co. Donegal.
The monitoring was carried out as a precaution due to the potential for archaeological remains to be present along the scheme in the vicinity of eight Cultural Heritage (CH) site comprising a stream (CH01), a spring (CH02), a bridge (CH03), and five lime kilns (CH04–CH08). Four lime kilns (CH04–CH07) in Oldtown are shown on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (1905) and a number of earlier lime kilns are depicted on the earlier first-edition six-inch OS map (1836).
A continuous open-cut trench measuring 270m northwest to southeast by 0.65m in width and ranging from 1m to 1.2m in depth was excavated to facilitate new water mains. No potential archaeological objects, features, or deposits were noted during the archaeological monitoring. The only features revealed were four potential stone extraction pits or stone quarries that may have been associated with several lime kilns (CH05–CH08). These features most likely would have been nineteenth or early twentieth century in date.
In the area to the immediate east and southeast of one lime kiln (CH06) two of these potential features were revealed. The first measured 2.3m by 0.7–1.1m by 1.2m in depth and comprised a light-yellow sandy silt with frequent large sub-angular and angular boulders (measuring 0.4m by 0.2m by 0.2m to 0.5m by 0.5m by 0.7m in size), overlying a dark-grey silt; and the second, located c.0.45m to the southeast of it, measured 2.5m by 1.1m by 0.95m in depth and comprised a mixed redeposited layer of mid-grey sandy clay, light-yellow clay and mid-yellowish grey silt.
Fahy’s Road, Kilrush, Co. Clare.
