2023:561 - Straid, Clonmany, Donegal

The Straid, Clonmany scheme forms part of a larger, nationwide, Water Network Programme that is being undertaken by Uisce Éireann. The scheme involved the installation of c.639m of rehabilitated water mains within the existing road carriageway. The installation methods used were open-cut trenching and slip lining. The groundworks for the scheme consisted of a continuous open-cut trenching located along an existing unnamed road (L1551) in Straid townland, Co. Donegal. The monitoring followed a high-level Cultural Heritage Screening Assessment undertaken for the scheme by Archaeological Management Solutions.
The archaeological monitoring was carried out intermittently between 22 November and 13 December 2023.
The monitoring undertaken included the excavation of two sections of a continuous open-cut trench totalling c.200m, one slit trench and several service trenches to facilitate house connections located within the Zones of Notification (ZoN) for the following Recorded Monuments: a church (DG010-011----), a graveyard (DG010-011001-), a ritual site - holy/saint’s stone (DG010-011002-), a cairn-unclassified (DG010-011003-), and the following recorded archaeological sites: a castle-unclassified (DG010-011004-) and a souterrain (DG010-046----) which are listed on the Sites and Monuments Record. The area in the vicinity of a watercourse/drain and a culvert was also monitored.
The open-cut trenches measured 0.6m wide by 1.2m in depth. The modern road surface along the scheme measured between 0.15–0.5m in depth. In the trench within the ZoN for cairn-unclassified (DG010-011003-), a 0.2m deep layer of the natural subsoil comprised of mid-greyish orange and yellow sandy silt with a band of dark brownish orange iron pan, overlying a layer of loose dark brownish-grey silty sand to a depth of 1.2m were revealed.
At the top of a hill, opposite church (DG010-011----) and graveyard (DG010-011001-), and souterrain (DG010-046----), a 0.1–0.25m deep layer of mid-blackish-grey silty sand with frequent small to medium angular stone was revealed overlying the natural subsoil. Loose animal bones were retrieved from the spoil of this layer. Further examination did not reveal other findings or features in this area. The natural subsoil in this area comprised of mid-brownish-orange silty sand with moderate small to large angular stone inclusions, overlying a layer of mid-orangish-brown and greyish-brown sandy gravel and stone with frequent small to large angular stone inclusions to a depth of 1.2m. The area along the southern road verge adjacent to the souterrain (DG010-046----) was previously disturbed by existing water main and storm pipe services.
No potential archaeological objects, features or deposits were noted during the archaeological monitoring along the Straid, Clonmany scheme. The only features revealed were: a stone culvert, measuring c.7m wide by min. 1m in height, across a watercourse/drain depicted on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map (1902) and the top of a modern stone culvert/drain located 7m southeast of the later culvert.

Fahy’s Road, Kilrush, Co. Clare