2025:282 - Maghernakelly, Drum, Monaghan
County: Monaghan
Site name: Maghernakelly, Drum
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a
Licence number: 24E1224
Author: Liam Coen c/o Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy
Author/Organisation Address: Nutgrove Office Park, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14
Site type: Testing, burnt mound feature
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 658940m, N 818430m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.111552, -7.098607
Test excavations in advance of a planning application took place as part of an assessment for a greenfield site in Maghernakelly, Drum, Co. Monaghan. Nine trenches were excavated to investigate the results of a geophysical survey (Leigh 2024; licence no. 24R0379) that indicated several features that may be of archaeological significance. Test excavations revealed only a single area of archaeological interest, AA1, that comprised of a burnt mound deposit filling and overlying a pit or trough. The feature was truncated by a former field boundary visible on early OS maps. Burnt mounds, sometimes known as fulachtaí fia, are relatively common prehistoric archaeological sites using heated stone for heating/boiling water for one or a variety of domestic, social or ritual purposes. The remaining geophysical features investigated comprised of former field boundaries and scattered evidence of brick making.
Reference:
Leigh, J. 2024 ‘Geophysical Survey Report. Maghernakelly Townland, Drum, Cootehill, County Monaghan. Licence Number: 24R0379’. Unpublished report prepared by J. M. Leigh Surveys on behalf of Courtney Deery Heritage Consultancy Ltd.
