2023:362 - Ballydevitt, Ballydevitt Beg, Drumgornan, Newtowndrumgornan, Donegal

The Ballydevitt PS to Eddrim Glebe PS schemes in Co. Donegal form part of a larger nationwide Water Network Programme that is being undertaken by Uisce Éireann. The scheme involved the installation of c.2,042m of new water mains within the existing road carriageway and the decommissioning of 542m of existing pipeline. The groundworks for the scheme consisted of several trial holes as part of advance site investigations, access pits to facilitate the directional drilling method and sections of open-cut trenching located along an existing unnamed road to the northwest of Donegal Town in the townlands of Ballydevitt, Ballydevitt Beg, Drumgornan and Newtowndrumgornan, Co. Donegal.
The monitoring followed a high-level Cultural Heritage Screening Assessment (CHSA) undertaken for the schemes by Archaeological Management Solutions in March 2023. The CHSA found that the Ballydevitt PS to Eddrim Glebe PS schemes will not impact any Recorded Monuments. Archaeological monitoring was recommended – as a precaution – in the vicinity of cultural heritage sites: a watercourse (CH01), kilns (site of; CH02 and CH04), quarry (site of; CH03), a kiln (site of; CH04), spring (site of; CH05) and two culverts (site of; CH06 and CH07) due to potential for archaeological remains to be present at these locations.
Monitoring was carried out on 5 May 2023, and intermittently between 22 August and 14 September 2023. The installation methods used were directional drilling and open-cut trenching. Excavation of five trial holes (TH05, TH07–TH09A and TH09B) and three access pits (AP1–AP3) and a section of a continuous open-cut trench (T1) was monitored. The trial holes and access pits measured between 1–2m by 0.5–1m by 0.3–1.4m in depth and the open-cut trench measured 100m by 0.7m by 1.2m in depth. In those trenches, the natural subsoil was revealed which consisted of mid-orangey-brown or mid-greyish-yellow stoney-silty clay with rock and boulder inclusions or mid-greyish-yellow clay. A layer of built-up deposit consisting of light yellowish-orange silty clay was identified overlying the top of the bridge (CH08). A modern stone culvert was found c.52m northeast of the bridge (CH08) at 0.55m below ground level. The culvert measured 2.1m in length and was comprised of shale stones.
No potential archaeological objects, features or deposits were noted during the archaeological monitoring along Ballydevitt PS to Eddrim Glebe PS schemes in the vicinity to any of the cultural heritage sites.

Fahy’s Road, Kilrush, Co. Clare