Road — class 3 togher in Magheracar

Archaeological testing carried out under excavation licence no. 04E0012 (Part 2) by Brian O Donnchadha of I.A.C. Ltd as part of the Ballyshannon/Bundoran Bypass road scheme revealed a possible pit burial, a chert knapping site and a possible trackway. The site is located at the base of the valley near Donegal Bay with a stream along the southern boundary of the site. The glacial subsoil slopes considerably downwards under the peat bog, which occupies the 30 m of the field immediately west of the stream, possibly indicating that it may have been a lakeshore area. Significant amounts of brushwood were found at the south-western end of the field, between 0.7-0.9 m below present ground level. The timbers varied from 0.04-0.07 m diameter. The brushwood may have been deliberately placed in the bog as a possible brushwood trackway as some of the wooden pieces appeared to be placed lengthways east-west. Alternatively the wood may represent a phase of woodland/scrubland clearance. The wood species from Magheracar 1 are not naturally occurring timber, they grow on dryland fringes. It has been suggested that the hazel could have been selected from a nearby area of coppiced woodland; however, it is not possible to tell whether this was from a deliberately managed or naturally occurring coppice woodland. Charcoal analysis revealed three species of wood, the most commonly occurring was hazel (Corylus avellana). One of the pieces of brushwood was identified as willow (salix spp.) and a larger roundwood was identified as Alder buckthorn (Frangula alnus Mill). Latest: Beta 200977, Charcoal (Hazel-Corylus avellana) from trackway , 1520 +/- 60 BP, cal. AD 420 - cal. AD 660 (2 sigma). Information taken from NRA archaeological database website (www.nra.ie). Date of upload/revision: : 19 July 2010