Pit in Loughsallagh

Located on a fairly level landscape. A gradiometer survey (17R0229) by Target Archaeological Geophysics of an extensive development area of c. 75 ha in the townlands of Loughsallagh, Portan, and Gunnocks, identified numerous anomalies of potential archaeological interest. Targeted archaeological testing (18E0013) by T. Coughlin in 2018 and M. Piera (19E0211) in 2019 was able to demonstrate that many of these were of fairly modern agricultural origin. However, sixteen locations were set aside for further investigation, which was undertaken by J. Whitaker under the licence (18E0013) between the beginning of April and the end of July 2019, and all but four of these proved to be of archaeological interest. A pit (dims 2.66m x 1.66m; D 0.38m) had two fills of grey-brown silty clay with varying amounts of charcoal flecks, animal bone and sea-shells. The pit was partly cut by linear furrows. No artefacts were recovered but a human femur that returned a post-medieval date, was in the topsoil. (Whitaker 2020, 30, Site 11) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 5 November 2021